Little Lily: The Second Year
by The-Shy-Quiet-One
Summary: The second part to Little Lily (which should be read first). Lily has been captured by the Bomber Bandits, now it is up to her father and the other Aurors to save her. Can they? Newly edited and revised! More details and longer chapters! Non-canon.
1. Pain

Disclaimer: Any and all recognized characters and settings belong to the beautiful J.K. Rowling.

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**Little Lily: The Second Year**

**_Chapter One: Pain_**

Lily's world was dark. Very very dark and dirty. She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen sunlight and had lost count of the days since she'd been placed in this tiny little room in the basement of what she had gathered to be one of her captor's houses. The dirt floor was her bed, and her clothes, the school uniform she had been wearing when she'd been taken, were covered in filth. The white shirt she wore under a sweater vest was so impossibly covered in dirt that it had turned black, or maybe that was just the blackness of the world around her. The pitch black that her eyes seemed to never be able to adjust to no matter how much they tried. Light did not reach this room.

At first, Lily had struggled whenever the door to the room had opened, usually the bringing of a meal, just enough to keep her alive. Her instincts would kick into overdrive and cause spurts of accidental magic to explode from inside of her, but after a while, with her will dwindling, her accidental magic had been dwindling as well. That was what these men wanted, for her will to be killed and then, they would let her out of the room. She had heard them speaking of their plan when they thought she was asleep. They thought she had some serious magical powers and they wanted to hone her into some sort of weapon to help them in their quest to make wizards the highest of beings in the world, to make it so Muggles were treated no better than animals.

The first thing these men had done, was take her wand. It had burned all of them and had been passed around like a hot potato, finally ending up in a box for storage. She would need it later, to help them. And then they had tried bargain with her, told her that if she was a good girl, she would get good food, a soft bed. But Lily wouldn't have any of that. She would not perform a single cruel spell, and therefore, had been placed in the basement room to break her spirit.

Lily's fingers wrapped tightly about the Snapper in her pocket, the one thing she'd been able to conceal and hold onto, the one thing she had left of the happy world that had been so roughly ripped away from her. Footsteps on the stairs told her that someone was coming, and she quickly dropped the Snapper back into her pocket, not wanting to lose it.

The door to her little room opened and the man who had grabbed her entered, holding his wand in his hand, the tip lighted. "Are you ready to be a good little girl and do as you're told?"

"No." Lily shook her head.

"Too bad. Crucio!" Before Lily had a chance to even think about producing her bubble shield, the spell hit her and she screamed, writhing on the floor as the pain hit her. It was the most excruciating thing she had ever experienced in her entire life. Sure, these men had threatened to torture her before, but they had never used magic to do so before. They normally just didn't feed her when she refused to do what they wanted. The Cruciatus Curse was a whole new experience.

Once Lily's wailing had stopped echoing off the walls of the room, the man asked her again. "Are you going to do as you're told and learn the spells we teach you?"

"No!" Another wave of pain erupted in Lily's body and she started screaming again. She writhed on the floor, unable to control her movements as the Cruciatus Curse enveloped her entire being, making it so she would feel nothing, react to nothing… but the pain until she passed out from it. Her will was weakening slowly.

During sleep, Lily was plagued by nightmares, horrid faces with red hair mostly, that attacked her or said cruel words. She was sure it hadn't always been this way. No, her family loved her, there was no way they would treat her so unkindly. It had to be something her captors were doing to her to make her feel scared when she dreamed of the ones she loved, she was almost sure of it. The dreams were getting more and more vivid though, less foggy and blurred, as though trying to block out the realities of what had actually happened to her and replace it with something a lot more sinister. She suspected there was something in the food, but it was either eat or die, and she refused to do the latter, no matter how bad things got.

"So, I have a new proposition for you, Sparrow." The man Lily had dubbed Number One (he was obviously the leader when compared to the other two men) stated as he opened the door to the dingy little room she was kept in. Without her wand and proper nourishment there was no way she was going to escape just by running even if she tried. She was just eleven years old after all. Three grown wizards would have no problem catching her. "Follow me."

Lily remained on the floor, huddled up in the corner farthest from the door and the bucket she had to use to go to the bathroom in. When she didn't rise, Number One grabbed hold of her long hair and dragged her forcefully from the room and into the larger portion of the basement. This room was a lot brighter, with lighting and comfortable looking furniture, even a fire place, like a basement living room.

Lily squinched her eyes, the glare of the lights painful after spending so much time in the dank little prison room. She was covered in filth from the dirt floor, face smudged with grim, hair matted. Her eyes searched around the room, looking for any sign of time, a clock or a calendar, but she found neither.

Number Two and Three sat on the couch, looking a little anxious but otherwise excited. They rose as One dragged Lily over and then let go of her, pushing her down into a chair as he did so.

"Now then… get the elf."

Lily gulped as Three rose and left the room, returning a short minute later with a young looking house elf who's eyes flickered around the room fearfully. They fell on Lily and began to water as though sad. The elf wore nothing more than a raggedy tea towel about it's waist.

"Alright Sparrow, here's the deal. You can either start practicing the spells we teach you, or I kill the elf. So, which will it be?" One stated, reaching down to the coffee table and opening the box that contained Lily's precious double wooded wand.

"No miss! You mustn't do as he asks!" The house elf piped up, his voice squeaking, cracking in far but otherwise brave. "You mustn't! You is just a little girl! Jiggy would rather die!"

Lily's voice caught in her throat and she bit her lower lip, looking from the cruel expression on One's face to the tearful house elf. She stifled a sob and reached her hand out for her wand. She would not allow the elf to die for her sake… no… she would do as she was told.

"There's a good girl!" One beamed smugly. "Remember though, there's three of us and only one of you. If cross the line and try to escape or fight us, we will kill the elf and his entire family."

Lily nodded in understanding, her eyes strained against tears, but she failed. They began leaking, putting more streaks down her dirty face and she shook her head apologetically at the elf. She couldn't let him die, or his family. That would be unfair.

"Now then. Let's practice. Our first spell is the Cruciatus Curse, you know it well by now." One raised his own wand, pointing it at the helpless elf, bound by orders to do as he was told. "Crucio."

The elf fell to the floor, screaming and writhing as Lily had become used to doing over the past couple of weeks. The girl screamed and dropped her wand, rising from the chair and rushing over to the elf and throwing herself over him. He stopped writhing, the connection between him and One's wand blocked.

"Get her."

Two reached down and pulled Lily up by her hair, away from the poor elf who lay sobbing on the floor. Lily was flung away from him, her shoulder whacking off the coffee table with a bang and she fell backwards, still crying.

"What did I tell you, Sparrow? You're to do as you are told or he dies! Now you've got one more chance and if you interfere again it's his life that'll need saving!" One growled, dragging Lily to her feet before pushing her in the direction of her wand. "Get your wand. It's time to practice."

Lily did as she was told, picking up her wand and holding onto it tightly, knowing that if she made one wrong move… the poor elf would be killed. To watch him be tortured was one thing, but to see him be killed because of her would be quite another. No. She would not risk the life of another being just by not doing as she was told because it was against her morals. She would go against herself if it meant keeping this poor creature safe from these awful men.

"It's a simple jabbing motion. And you have to feel the need to do it. Power the spell." One explained now, reaching out and moving Lily's wand hand to show her the proper movement. "Now try it. On the elf."

Lily nodded with a gulp and pointed her wand at the elf, tears flowing freely down her face now. "I'm sorry…" She sobbed and then jabbed her wand. 'Crucio."

The elf fell to the floor, letting out a single scream, but the spell didn't have nearly as much power behind it as One's had simply because one wanted to cause pain in order to do it properly. Lily had no desire to hurt the elf and so, her spell had only lasted a moment.

"Again! Try harder this time!" One shouted, sitting back in a chair and watching as Lily struggled. He chuckled, enjoying this far too much. He was a sick bastard, taking advantage of a child like this and he knew it, but if that was what it took in order to help wizards regain control of the world and make Muggles their slaves, then so be it. He felt no shame and neither did either of his comrades. They would do what it took in order to have control of this little girl who was supposed to have double the power of any normal witch.

…...

"Harry, come on, you have to eat something." Ron pressed a plate with a single piece of toast on it towards his best mate. Harry shook his head, staring down at the table, his eyes still wide with the shock of losing the one thing in the world that he had vowed to protect with his life.

It had been two months since the Bombers had taken Lily right out from under his nose. At first, Harry had gone every which way, searching so hard that he had ended up in St. Mungo's. Kingsley had placed him under strict orders to stick to his normal schedule so as not to overdo himself again. There were other highly skilled Aurors out looking for Lily at all times, stealth and intelligence specialists working on finding the right clues to follow. So far, they hadn't had much luck. The Bombers had gotten what they were looking for and the explosions had stopped. There was hardly anything to track, not that Harry hadn't tried his damndest to find something, anything.

"Harry, please… just a few bites…" Hermione pleaded, lifting the toast and placing it in front of his mouth. Harry just shook his head again and rose from the table.

"I'm going to work."

"But it's your day off."

"I won't have a day off until I get my daughter back." Harry tugged on his coat and disappeared into the rainy summer day.

"Mummy, is Lily ever coming back?" Luna asked, looking up from her oatmeal.

"I don't know sweetheart. Try not to think about it to much alright?"

"I'm going to work as well." Ron stood up, grabbing the old Chudley Cannons cap Harry had gotten him in their fourth year and plopping it down upon his head. "Harry's right. We can't just stop looking. We didn't take a single day off when we were searching for Horcruxes, we're not doing it now. Not when this is so much more important." Apparently the sight of his own daughter's sadness had done something to him.

"Ron…" Hermione sighed.

"Hermione…" He frowned at her and she nodded.

"I love you. Be careful… I'll have dinner waiting."

"Love you too. I'll be back, I promise." He blew her a kiss and then apparated with a loud crack. Hermione sighed again and returned to placing a plate of scrambled eggs in front of Nevvy.

"Why fank chu, Mummy." Nevvy raised her little spoon and then dug in delightedly. Luna sighed and pushed her own plate away, not hungry.

"Mum, can I Floo to the Burrow and see Xavier?"

"Alright, but just be sure you come out at the right grate, alright my darling?"

"Yes, Mum." Luna nodded and headed into the living room where the fire place was. She took the vase off the center of the mantle and dug her hand into it, extracting a good bit of Floo powder. She chucked it into the fire and stepped in. "The Burrow!"

With a whoosh, Luna was sent barreling down the chimneys of hundreds of wizards and witches. She like keeping her eyes open as she did so, not so much minding the dizzying speed. For her, it was like a roller coaster ride of epic proportions.

Sighing, Hermione watched her daughter disappear up the chimney and then turned around to sit beside her three year old. Nevvy was getting bigger and bigger every day, and speaking her words more clearly. Hermione had even begun teaching her how to read after noticing how fast Nevvy had taken to the alphabet… just like Luna had at that age. Harry hadn't been so early in his learning, but that was alright, because he was her only son and she still loved him dearly.

"Muuum!" Speaking of which, Harry came barreling down the stairs and into the kitchen. He was fourteen now and getting quite impossibly gangly, like his father. "Can I go hang out with Marcus?"

"Did you finish that late essay for Professor McGonagall?"

"Uh…"

"Get back upstairs and do it. Once it's finished, you can go see Marcus."

"But Mum! I have the rest of the summer to finish it!"

"That may go over with your father, but I will not have it. Now march, mister." Hermione pointed a finger at the stairs, making Harry sigh. He grumbled and stomped all the way back up the stairs and slammed his bedroom door behind him. Hermione sighed. She hated being rough with any of her children, but she knew it would benefit them in the end.

"Mummy, we go see fishies?" Nevvy asked, gazing up at Hermione through her lashes with big brown pleading eyes.

"Maybe later, sweetheart. Mummy has lots of work to do, would you like to help?"

"Ok, Mummy!" Nevvy beamed and slid out of her chair, picking up her plate and fork and carrying them over to the sink like a good girl. She was so well behaved when she wanted to be and a huge pain in the butt when she didn't want to be, mainly when she didn't get something she wanted. Nevvy did like helping Hermione with the chores though, she was still at that age where helping and doing chores was fun and exciting.

"Here, do you think you could go feed Crookshanks?" Hermione asked, opening a can of cat food and handing it to her littlest girl. Nevvy nodded and dashed out of the room.

"Kitty! Kitty! I has you foods!"

Hermione laughed and then jumped as the fire in the fireplace turned green. Expecting Luna was back, she opened her mouth to speak but then was startled once more when she got the head of Kingsley Shacklebolt instead.

"Kingsley! Good morning." Hermione smiled.

"Ah, Hermione. Good morning. Are Harry and Ron about?"

"No, they just left for work… it's their day off, but they refused to stay, why?"

"Good good, I need them in the office anyway. There's been a development on the case, a new lead… and it's strong this time. We believe we may have found the location of the Bandit's hide out. And if we can find the location…"

"You can find Lily. Gosh, I wish I was on this case. I could help, but Nevvy…."

"That's another reason I was popping in. The information for the location is in some sort of strange code. Do you think you could crack it?"

"I could give it a try, that's for sure." Hermione beamed and Kingsley's hand appeared, clutching a manila folder.

"Here it is…" Hermione grabbed a pair of tongs and pulled the folder from Kingsley's hand gently. "You've the brightest witch we've got on the team, Hermione. We're counting on you."

"Yes, sir."

"Kingswey!" Nevvy squealed, running forward to the fireplace and hopping up and down. She held out the can, now empty. "I feeds da kitty, Kingswey!"

"Good job, Nevvy! Hey, do you think you could do me a favor?"

"Yes!" Nevvy nodded, still bouncing.

"One of your dollies sent me an owl asking me if I would let you know that she wants to have a big tea party with you and all of your other toys, but not your mummy. Do you think you could do that?"

"Oooh yessss!" Nevvy laughed, jumping higher. "I go hab tea party. Mummy, you no come. Dolly saids so."

"Alright sweetheart. You go on and have fun." Hermione smiled as Nevvy ran out of the room and began toddling up the stairs. "Thanks, Kingsley. I don't know how I would have had the time to look this over otherwise."

"Not a problem. See you later."

"See you." Hermione watched Kingsley disappear and the fire went out. She stood at the bottom of the stairs for a moment, placing a flesh colored extendable ear in her own ear, listening to the sounds of her children. Harry's quill was scratching, that was good… and Nevvy was giggling about something.

Sure that her children were alright to be left to their own devices for a little while now, Hermione headed down the downstairs hallway and opened the door to the study. It was the one room in the house her children had to have permission to enter, not because she thought they would do anything harm, but because she and Ron had copies of top secret wizarding law enforcement files here. The filing cabinet could only be opened with a charmed key. Anything else, whether it be one of Harry's lock picking devices or a strong Alohomora, the cabinet would stay locked.

Hermione shut the door behind her and sat down at her neatly arranged desk. She opened the file and gazed down at the weird symbols. They were like nothing she had ever seen before, though she was sure she had a book somewhere that might come in handy.

Being a person with a great reading ability and a stash of books that made Flourish and Blotts look like a dump, Hermione was one of the best witches to ever step foot in the Auror offices. She'd spent the first five years out of Hogwarts rallying for the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, and once that had gotten a good kick start, she'd joined the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Pondering over the weird symbols, Hermione rose from her desk and left the study, heading for her library.

The attic of her and Ron's small cottage on the outskirts of Ottery St. Catchpole had been enlarged to contain Hermione's growing collection of books. When there was a book she couldn't find, all she had to do was contact McGonagall and ask to visit the Hogwarts' library. If Hogwarts didn't have it, she would just keep her eyes open until she found it.

The library was made up mostly of mismatched book cases gathered from yard sales and junk heaps. Any broken pieces had been easily mended and the room was quite lovely. A whole corner was dedicated to children's books, along with the couch that Harry (the big one) had taken to sleeping on when he stopped working long enough to actually come home.

The section Hermione headed for was just across from the kids' books. She had to stand on tip toe to pull down the large volume she was looking for, but she managed it alright. After choosing a few more books about symbols, Hermione carried them downstairs to her study, stopping on her way to peek in at her children to make sure they were happily working and playing.

…..

"Hermione?" Ron knocked lightly on the study door to announce he was coming in and then pressed it gently open, peeking in. Hermione looked as she did in their school days before exams. Her hair was mussed all over the place, bit of parchment were strewn here and there all around her normally neat desks, and books lay open, either on top of the desk, on a chair or on the floor where they'd fallen. Hermione's head was down, her quill scratching furiously at a piece of parchment, eyes looking from book, to a piece of parchment floating in front of her, and then to what she was writing. In Ron's eyes, she never did look more beautiful than when she was at work like this… except for when she was with their children of course. "'mione, love, it's well past dinner time."

"Hmm? Just make the kids some sandwiches and tell them I'll be up to tuck them in later. I've really got to…"

"They're already in bed, it's nearly eleven."

Hermione nearly dropped her quill as she finally looked up from her parchment. She blinked, turning her head to glance at the clock. "Oh… Oh, Merlin! I forgot to give them lunch! And dinner, and it was my turn to give Nevvy her bath… and Luna wanted to hear the story about how we got Crookshanks again and…"

Ron raised his hand to quiet her, walking into the room more fully now and placing his hands on her shoulders. "Harry took care of lunch and Nevvy until I got home, he knew you were busy. And I did the rest. They're all perfectly happy and will forgive you for working so hard if you come eat something and get to bed."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Ron… It was my turn to…"

"Forget it. You do everything else, one day once in a while won't matter. Is this the code Kingsley gave you?" He peered over her shoulder at the parchment floating in the air.

"Yes, but I can't seem to figure it out. I was really close, I thought I had it at one point, but then the words were jumbled and made absolutely no sense, so I had to start over somewhere else." Hermione sighed, putting her head in her hands tiredly. She winced and rubbed at the back of her neck… being bent over a desk all day had done it in.

"Come to bed, love. You can work on it more tomorrow. The kids can hang out at the Burrow, Mum'll love it."

"I really, really need to get this figured out…"

"Tomorrow. There's no point in working yourself until you fall asleep here, and then you'll be too tired to work tomorrow."

"Well… No.. No, I really do need to…"

"Hermione." Ron sighed and tugged her chair back from the desk.

"Ron, I can't. Lily is depending on us to find her."

"There are people working night and day on the case." Ron placed one arm around Hermione's shoulders and then swiftly slide his other under her knees, lifting her up as she began to protest once more.

She was asleep by the time he reached the door.

* * *

Well, here it is, a newly edited version the second installment of Little Lily. I'm quite excited about restarting this one and making it better than it was. If you've already read the original version, don't worry! This one is better, I promise. If you've got the time and would like to, I always appreciate your input, so review if you want! It helps me write!

Love always,  
S.Q.O.


	2. Practice

**Little Lily: The Second Year**

**_Chapter Two: Practice_**

"That's it, nicely done!" Two laughed, patting Lily on the top of her head as she dropped her wand back down to her side, heaving a tired sigh. These men had her practicing the Cruciatus Curse almost all day every day this week it felt like, though she wasn't sure what day it was or if it had even been a week. Had she slept six times since that first day that had made her do this Unforgivable Curse? She couldn't remember. "What a good girl, doing as she's told. You've earned yourself a bath."

"A…a bath?" Lily asked, her eyes widening. She turned her head to look up at Two who wasn't nearly as mean as One and Three were. He was still pretty horrid, but when he spoke it wasn't with such cruelty. He did laugh though, when he forced Lily to torture various house elves until they were unconscious. She just about had the Cruciatus Curse perfected to One's orders. One wasn't in the house anymore, from what Lily gathered, or at least, she hadn't seen him, though she wasn't sure as to where he could be.

"Yeah. And if you keep it up maybe we'll let you have a little bed in that room of yours." Two laughed again and held out the wand box. Lily sighed, gripping her wand tighter for a moment before, sadly, placing it back in the box. She knew it was her one chance at escaping, but with the possibility of the house elves being killed should she revolt kept her at bay for now. That, and she was too weak and worn out to get very far even if she had tried.

Her hair was limp, hung with dirt and grime, lifeless as her skin and eyes which used to shine so brightly. Dirt caked beneath her nails uncomfortably. She picked it out in her cell, but it just kept coming back, never fully able to be cleaned out. She was getting more to eat though… Good behavior got her things, and the men weren't just teasing her with the idea of them either. She'd gotten more than just porridge for dinner last night, and this morning, there had actually been breakfast instead of just a cup of water. Sure it had just been an orange, but that was more than just water alone. Perhaps she'd get more for dinner tonight like last night as well? Since she'd been good?

Once her wand was away, Two wandered over to a door near the stairs in the basement living room. "Here. Clean yourself up. You smell putrid."

Lily couldn't believe her ears, but she carefully trod over to the door. Inside was a bathroom. A real bathroom with tile and a tub and a toilet and sink, and none of it was grungy either. She entered the bathroom and then heard the door shut behind her.

She heaved a sigh of relief, turning around to lock it but finding it had no knob. Huh, that was strange, but then, there was no knob inside the door to the room she was kept in most of the time either, so maybe that was just something about this basement, another way to keep her locked up.

Lily started the tub, letting the water flow into it. She plugged it up and added some shampoo to make bubbles and then pondered climbing in in her dirty clothes. Figuring she'd rather put them back on even dirty rather than be in wet clothes in an already chilly basement, she shucked them off. They were so caked with dirt that they were practically stiff. She shook them, getting dirt all over the floor and then climbed into the tub, relishing the way the water felt on her skin. She watched as the dirt fell off her pale legs and then grabbed a bar of soap and began scrubbing at herself, not knowing how much time she was going to have before she had to get out.

Once her skin felt clean, Lily dunked her head under the now murky water. It was gross and grungy now, full of her own filth but she didn't care. Right now water was water and she was going to get as clean as possible while she could.

Grabbing the shampoo, Lily poured some onto her now wet head and began to scrub. Her hair was so gross and matted though that it was hard to really get at it. She could feel grains of sand against her scalp and she just had so much hair… it was going to take a while to get it clean.

While she scrubbed at her hair, the a knocking came upon the door, and Lily jumped slightly, scrubbing more furiously at her hair. "Y-yes?"

"Ain't you done yet?"

"I… my hair is…" Lily began and then let out a yelp as the door opened and Three came in. She sank down in the tub, trying to cover herself with bubbles to keep him from seeing anything. Her face turned red in embarrassment, but Three didn't seem to notice. He stared down at her in the tub and then pulled out his wand. He reached down and grabbed up her hair, pulling. Lily cried out and then, the pressure on her scalp released.

"There. Now you ain't got no problem hurrying up." Three laughed and held up his left hand, holding up something long a black and matted. It dripped on the floor, soapy. Lily's eyes went wide and she gasped in shock, one hand reaching up to feel her head. Three had chopped off most of her hair! There wasn't much left on her head now… at least… it felt like a lot less than she was used to. "Now finish up. Oh and here. Two said you'd be needing this."

Three pulled something dark blue off of his shoulder and dropped it on the counter by the sink. "Five minutes."

After Three had left and closed the door behind him, Lily scrubbed at the remains of her hair and then dunked herself under the water to rinse out most of the soap. She climbed out of the tub and grabbed a towel off of the rack above the toilet and began drying herself off rapidly, not wanting one of the men to come back in when she was so exposed.

She wrapped the towel tightly about herself and then picked up the blue thing Three had left. It was a simple terrycloth dress, probably from a secondhand store by the looks of it, not that it mattered at all to Lily. She was just glad to have something remotely clean to put on. She pulled it on quickly over her head and then retrieved her underwear and the Snapper from her pocket. She put the Snapper in her pocket and then washed the dirt off of her underwear in the sink and then tried to dry them the best she could with a towel before pulling them on. They were wet and uncomfortable, but she'd be able to take them back off and hold onto them until they dried once she was locked back up in her room. Using the time she had left, Lily peered into the mirror over the sink. Her hair was lopsided, cut so that it was just barely touching above one ear and halfway down the other ear. She blinked back tears, knowing there were worse things than having her hair mutilated.

The door opened and Three ushered her out and across the basement living room back to the little room she was kept in. Without a word, Three opened the door and Lily entered, retreating back to her corner and watching as the door was shut once more. She heaved a silent sigh of relief, glad she was at least back to a place she felt safer than out there with those men, being made to do horrid spells on house elves.

…...

"Who is this?" Two held up a photograph in front of Lily. They had been practicing the Imperious Curse all morning so far but in order not t completely wear the child out too soon, they were taking a break. Instead, Lily was given a glass of milk for lunch and Two was showing her pictures of people she recognized from her nightmares, as she sipped at the milk, the feelings of fear got worse and worse.

"Um... Er... I don't remember her name." Lily shook her head no long recognizing the red haired woman in the picture. She could have sworn she'd been able to answer this particular question just the other day but for some reason her brain was getting foggier and foggier when it came to names. The only thing she could recognize now were the faces, though even those appeared quite different than the ones in her dreams. The faces in her nightmares were incredibly frightening. So frightening in fact that when it came time to sleep she would lay there on the dirt covered floor desperately trying to keep her eyes wide open so as not to sleep. She was afraid of sleep. Every night she would wake screaming and crying, sweat pouring down her forehead and chest. It got worse and worse on the days she was shown the photos.

Instead of being angry that she couldn't remember the woman's name, Two smirked quite smugly and then flipped onto yet another photo. This one was of a boy with dark chestnut hair.

Lily bit her lip holding back a whimper. This boy...she had dreamt about him the night before. He had been pegging little round things that spit at her, what were they called? Gobstones. That was the name of the little round marble like things. Lily remembered those, but mainly because she had a similar one she kept in her pocket. It was clear with a golden snitch in the middle. She couldn't quite remember where it had come from, but she knew she had been holding onto it since she had been brought to this wretched place with these horrid men. She kept it safely in her pocket, clinging to it with one hand especially when she was alone, for some reason, it made her feel safe... Not so alone.

"Do you recognize this boy?"

"Yes." Lily nodded. She saw no reason to lie about having seen the boy before, even though she wasn't positive if he was a product of her imagination or a reality she couldn't quite grasp anymore. Every time she tried harder and harder to dig deeper into the depths of her brain to remember anything from before she was with the Number Men that wasn't scary it was like grasping and trying to catch air. She could feel it there, but every time she looked for it or reached for it, she was met with nothing.

"Do you know his name?"

"No." Lily shook her head. She knew the boy's face, but his name escaped her. She could feel it there, right on the tip of her tongue, a word she should remember, but alas, it would not come. It was quite a daunting feeling, not being able to put a name to a face when she knew it was a face she should be able to name even if it was scary.

"Excellent. I think that's it for now. Finish your milk and then we'll get started on more practice."

Lily did as she was told, though rather reluctantly. She didn't want to do any more practicing of the unforgivable curses. It made her heart ache every time she was forced to perform one on the numerous defenseless house elves that were brought down to the basement living room simply for this single purpose. She was a bad person, doing such spells on poor house elves. Once her glass was empty of milk, Lily was offered her wand. She took it with a sigh, her whole being deflating in defeat as she watched Three come downstairs with the house elf called Perry. She was Jiggy's wife and it always pained Lily to do spells on her, but it was better than when she was forced to do spells on the younger house elves who weren't even ten yet. Performing cruel spells on child elves hurt more than performing them on adult elves, though not by much. It broke her heart more and more every time.

"Here." Three dropped a house elf on the floor, having carried her down the stairs. The little elf looked absolutely petrified and Lily felt her hand drop from her side. How could she put an Unforgivable upon this poor little creature?

"Well, you know what to do." Two flopped back in a chair, kicking his feet up onto the coffee table as though ready to enjoy a particularly pleasant show. Three stood by the door which went to the bottom of the stairs, making it harder for the elf to escape.

"No." Lily shook her head, dropping her wand. "She… she's a little kid…"

"Perform the spell or she dies." Three commanded and Lily gulped, bending down and picking her wand back up. She didn't want the little elf to die because of her… and perhaps it wouldn't be so bad. She could just… make her dance or something. At least she wasn't being forced to perform the Cruciatus Curse of the Killing Curse this time.

"Imperio," Lily stated, feeling a little bit of herself tear away from her heart as she did so. She watched as the elf's eyes glazed over. Lily kept her wand pointed at her and bit her lip, thinking things in her head and forcing those thoughts down along her wand to the elf.

The little elf began to dance a jig with ease and then she did a back flip and jumped over the coffee table before doing a hand stand on the back of a chair. Then, Lily retracted the spell, pulling it back in and away, letting the elf come to a gentle rest on the floor. She dropped her wand and rushed forward, falling to her knees and reaching out to the little elf who looked confused.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry!" Lily broke down, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. The elf reached out to her, opening her mouth as though to say something, but Three jerked her away and opened the stairway door. He tossed her up and away and then slammed the door shut again. He turned to look at Lily, glaring angrily.

You don't apologize! You never apologize! You should enjoy doing them. Enjoy torturing and forcing and killing."

"No!" Lily shouted back, rising to her feet and stomping them. "NO! I won't enjoy it because it's wrong! It's wrong! It's wrong!" Her whole body shook with rage and her fists clenched, but there was no way she could have over powered either of the men by herself. She was also spent after performing just one spell, the lack of proper food and sleep taking their toll.

"Oh would you shut up!" Three shouted and then his hand smacked right across Lily's face, knocking her down to the floor. "You're such an annoying pest! I would have killed you by now if we were allowed to! But no, keep the girl alive! Fucking morons! Get to your room!"

Lily blinked in shock. The men had never actually hit her before. They're dragged her and grabbed her by the hair and said cruel things and made her perform crueler spells but they had never physically lashed out on her. Her whole being filled with fear and she retreated, dashing over to the little dank room she was kept in when she wasn't being forced to practice spells. The door slammed behind her and she curled up in her corner, tears falling rapidly from her eyes.

…...

"I can't believe they just keep changing!" Hermione groaned as Kingsley handed her the most recent of codes the Bandits were using to send their messages back and forth. The codes had been changing every two weeks and Hermione was having a horrible time trying to figure each one out with such limited information. This one was written in normal letters, but the words were crazy gibberish. They had discovered what the Bandits' owls looked like and had been swiping their mail for the past three months, with no new developments since July. "And you really couldn't have kept tabs on the owl?"

"No. Harry, Ron, and I stalked it all the way on our brooms to the ocean before it lost us in a storm. We can't be positive, but I think it may have been headed west."

"West… West… Harry and Lily were in the United States for the better part of the past twenty years… and the Bandits are from there. What if they somehow transported her back there or are planning to? It wouldn't be difficult for them to disguise her as someone else and produce a fake passport. But they would most likely have to put Lily under the Imperius curse to do that."

"That's it! That's where the owls must be flying." Kingsley snapped his fingers and ran to the wall where they hung all of the maps. The one in the center showed all of Great Britain, tabs with names stuck into it with differently colored pins. Each color stood for the seriousness of the crime done there, the tab stating what the crime was and who did it. When the person was found, the pin would come out. It was not this map Kingsley went to though, it was the map of the entire world. He fingered his wand, placing it against the part of Wales he and the others had flown to the other night.

"We lost the bird about here… and it was flying, in this general direction…" His wand tip lit up as he drew a line, heading in a south westerly direction. "The States track all international wizarding mail. The owl will have had to land at one of the rest stations after such a long journey, and then his letter would have been examined. I'll Floo the DC office, let them know what's going on."

"Alright. And I'll get started on this." Hermione nodded and took the new coded letter to her cubicle decorated with photos from both her school days and of her family. She'd come back to work for two and a half days a week, not wishing to be away from Nevvy for more than that amount of time. Harry and Luna had been back at school for about a month and a half now, Harry in his fourth year, Luna in her second.

Looking down at the new code, Hermione sighed. This one was impossibly difficult to comprehend out of all the other ones she'd see in the past few months. Wondering if she'd ever figure one out, she grabbed a fresh sheet of parchment and got to work.

…..

"Oh, she was perfect. Weren't you, cupcake?" Wisteria, Percy's wife, bent down to wipe a little smudge of what looked to be marker off of Nevvy's cheek. Mrs. Weasley was feeling a bit under the weather, so, Wisteria had offered to watch Nevvy for the day while Ron and Hermione were at work.

"Yes." Nevvy beamed, her arms wrapped tightly around an impossibly adorable plush strawberry with eyes that Hermione remembered seeing Percy's daughter, Molly, playing with when she was no bigger than Nevvy. "Aunnie gibbed me Seeds. Molly saids ok."

"Oh wow! That was very nice of them, what do you say to Auntie?" Hermione asked, stroking her daughter's hair.

"Fank chu, very much, Aunnie." Nevvy grinned and Wisteria gave her a quick cuddle and kissed her cheek.

"You're very welcome dear. You come visit any time, it's so nice to have a little one running about the house. I miss it… Percy thinks two is enough, but if I get my way, it won't be just two for much longer." Hermione laughed, knowing she was probably right. Percy was still high strung, but Wisteria and his children were the one weakness he had.

"Well, we best be going. See you later, Wisty, and thanks again."

"Not a problem." Wisteria waved as Hermione picked Nevvy up on her hip and carried her into the fireplace. She dropped the Floor powder and they were on their way home.

Upon arrival at home, Hermione stepped out of the fireplace and set Nevvy down on the floor. "What do you say we write Molly a thank you letter for giving you Seeds while we make dinner?"

"Yeah!" Nevvy nodded and ran into the kitchen. She tugged open the drawer where they kept all of the art supplies and pulled out a piece of pink construction paper and her box of crayons. "We write Molly and say fank chu!" She climbed up into her usual chair and set her paper on the table.

"Alright, you tell Mummy what you want to say, and I'll tell you which letters to write. If you can't remember what one of the letters looks like, then let me know."

"ok! I say… Dear Molly, Fank chu for my Seeds. I love you."

"Oh, that sounds like a lovely letter. Let's see… Dear is spelt D…."

"D. Ieka."

"E." Hermione reached into one of the lower cupboards to get out a pan. It was wet and rainy outside and she felt some nice soup for dinner might be a good idea. They could take it over to the Burrow for Mrs. Weasley as well.

"E. Ka." Nevvy scribbled her letters on the piece of pink paper, Hermione glanced at her, smiling. Nevvy was always making funny little sounds after she'd write a letter.

"A."

"A. Poo."

"Don't say 'poo' dear. R."

"R. Shka. Dear. Iekakapooshka!" Hermione laughed and continued to dictate the letters Nevvy needed to write her letter to Molly. Once finished, the soup was simmering nicely on the stove and Nevvy clapped her hands, holding her letter up high in absolute delight.

"Alright! Good job dear." Hermione smiled, looking over Nevvy's letter. It wasn't in the right format for a letter and was all capital letters, but it was readable, which was the best thing. Molly would be pleased. "We'll seal it up and send it off in a bit, love. I've got to get this soup into a container for Gramma. She has a cold."

"Gramma sick." Nevvy pouted and ran to the cupboard ahead of Hermione. She pulled out the big circular Tupperware bowl she knew her mummy put soup in sometimes and undid the lid on it. Hermione beamed. Her littlest was so helpful.

"That's just the one I wanted, thank you! You're such a big help, Nevvy." Hermione took the container and set it on the counter. She poured the contents of the soup into the container and popped the lid back on.

"Daddy will meet us at the Burrow for dinner." Hermione tapped the lid on the container to seal it all the way around and then offered it to Nevvy. If the little girl dropped it, it wouldn't spill now. "Could you take this into the living room while I clean up in here? Set it on the table so it's all ready to go."

"Ok Mummy." Nevvy nodded and took the container, leaving the room. Hermione smiled and placed the pot in the sink. She waved her wand and the water ran, the sponge getting up to scrub and the soap spouting into the pan. She reached to pick of Nevvy's crayons from the table, her arm hitting the manila folder with the most recent Bandit code in it. The folder slipped to the floor, the parchment inside floating out of it.

"Oh!" Hermione bent down to pick it up and glanced at the code for a moment before her eyes widened. The first word in the code. Iekakapooshka. "Nevvy…. Come here a moment…"

"Yes, Mummy?" Nevvy scampered back into the room, hands empty.

"Nevvy, what does iekakapooshka mean?"

"Silly, Mummy. Iekakapooshka! Dear!" She grabbed her letter off the table and pointed to the letter. "D. E. A. R. Dear. Ieka. Ka. Poo. Shka. Iekakapooshka!"

"Where did you learn that love?" Hermione asked, stooping down lower so she was eye level with her daughter.

"On da telly. Aunnie lemme watches da telly sometimes." Hermione nodded. She already knew this. Wisteria was Muggleborn and would let Nevvy watch a bit of television when it was rainy and wet out like it was today.

"What show?"

"Da Oompas. Dey talks Oompy-oomp. And dey shows letters in Oompy-omp." Hermione blinked. Oompas? She had heard of that one, and apparently it was quite a strange show, but educational in it's on way she supposed.

"Do you know the whole Oompy-Oomp alphabet?"

"Yes, Mummy! You want me learn you?"

"Teach, not learn, and yes. I would love you to teach me the whole alphabet. Let's see…" Hermione took the manila folder and one of Nevvy's crayons. She quickly wrote down the entire alphabet, leaving space between and below each letter for the translation. "Alright baby, tell me what the alphabet is."

"Poo…" Hermione wrote it down under the A. "Nah gah ieka ka doo daa loo beda kokoko…"

When Nevvy finished, she was beaming up at Hermione with absolute delight, proud of herself for having remembered all of the letter. "Awesome, Nevvy! Thank you! Mummy is soooo happy you taught her the Oompy-Oomp alphabet. Now, let's get that soup over to Gramma, shall we?"

"Yeah!" Nevvy laughed and ran into the next room.

….

It had taken Hermione a lot of patience to sit through dinner when she knew she might finally have the key to deciphering one of the Bandits' codes sitting in her purse right now. But as soon as Nevvy was tucked safely into bed and Ron was reading her her story (it was actually his turn this time), Hermione retreated into her study and got to work. It took her about two and a half hours to complete the letter, but when she was finished, she was beaming so brightly one might have thought she'd just discovered she was going to have another baby. The contents of the letter though, had her quickly frowning.

_Dear Nighthawk,_

_Though it took longer than anticipated, we have finally gotten the passport for the Sparrow. Apparently the government here puts unduplicatable spells upon the passports, so we had to track down a Muggle (ugh) and convince him to make one for us. We had to go about it as quietly as possible, not wishing for him to inform anyone that he was being harassed. The Ministry of Magic has no idea what's going on, though we have inside information that they are getting closer. Hopefully, they will remain unable to crack our codes, it was brilliant on your part to keep changing them. _

_The Sparrow is getting closer and closer to cracking properly. She has mastered the Cruciatus Curse and the Imperius Curse. The process of modifying her memories to make her see what we want her to see is going much smoother. She is no longer able to respond to questions about her family or friends with anything but fear, but seems to still have some strong morals buried deep within her. We shall, I think, overcome these shortly. _

_We shall fly for Australia on the 220 plane out of the London Airport on December 24__th __after which, we will fly home. We got some hair from some cute little redhead downtown that'll work nicely for disguising the Sparrow. It was Bearclaw's idea to go to Australia first, in case the spell that hides the Sparrow's Trace gets a chance to break. We plan to land in Los Angeles on the 27__th__. _

_Sincerely,_

_Rottweiler _

Hermione frowned, letting out a deep sigh. From what she gathered, the 'Sparrow' they were referring to was obviously Lily. And that meant, if what the letter said was correct, she had had her memories tampered with and she would face her friends and family with fear and distrust. But then… the information… they could easily track down every passenger on that flight who was traveling with a little girl and find out whether that girl was Lily or not.

"Rooon?" Hermione hurried up the stairs, parchment in hand. "Ron, I've got it. I've got the code."

Ron looked up from where he was tucking blankets more snugly around the sleeping Nevvy. He tiptoed across the room and turned out the light, leaving the painted stars on the ceiling and the night light glowing. He shut the door. "You've got it?"

"Yes. Nevvy, actually, showed me how. Apparently they ripped this one off from some television show called the Oompas that has it's own way of saying the letters. It took a while, but I've got it." She handed the parchment to Ron who read it, his eyes widening a bit at certain places.

"So.. this Sparrow the writer is referring to must be Lily. And Kingsley was right. The owl was headed for the United States."

"And that's where they're taking Lily." Hermione nodded, taking the parchment back from him. "And we can head them off. We know the flight and that Lily's hair will be red."

"What idiots. They must be either really dumb or think they've pulled one over on us with all of their coding. But alas, they have not yet met my brilliant wife." Ron grinned at her and kissed her cheek. "You've done a good job, 'mione. I'll get this to Kingsley right away, you head into bed. I'll be back before you finish reading."

"Ron… I think I should bring it to…"

"Hermione Jean Granger Weasley, you have done enough today. Go to bed. Read that book you've been wanting to finish but haven't had the time to. It'll take me ten minutes and then I'll be back to be the big spoon." Ron kissed her forehead, her nose, her lips, and took the letter from her hands gently. "I've got try to get Harry to come home anyway."

"Alright." Hermione nodded, hugging him tightly. "I'll see you in a few minutes then." Ron watched her walk down the hallway and into their bedroom. Even if he was gone for two hours, as that happened sometimes when he was only going to work for 'a few minutes', she'd be up and waiting for him.

…..

"Harry, Hermione cracked the code. Or rather, Nevvy cracked it for her, and Hermione just applied it to the letter. But here it is!" Ron brandished the Hermione's version of the letter and Harry took it. He read it over quickly, and then read it once more, slower, letting the information sink into his mind better.

"It doesn't tell us where she is… but it does tell us where she'll be." Harry nodded and reached into his desk drawer. "Flight 220 to Australia on the twenty fourth of December… That's two whole months away, Ron! They could have killed her by then!"

"Harry, they want her alive. And it gives us two months to come up with a plan to rescue her. We'll have to go through every single bit of information the airline can give us about the flight, and we'll have to deal with the Muggle authorities in order to do that, which means Kingsley will have to convince the Muggle Prime Minister to give us a bit of help."

"Convince him to help us with what?" Kingsley peered over the top of Harry's cubicle. Harry stood and thrust the letter at him and Kingsley read it over.

"Ah, I see. Excellent, we have time to form a plan. I think it best that you both are not present when we retrieve Lily, though."

"What? She's my bloody daughter!" Harry rose from his chair but Kingsley put up a hand to silence him.

"It says they've been messing with her memories… any friend or family, she'll face with fear. It'll be better if we have someone she hasn't met before rescue her."

"'We can disguise ourselves easily, Kingsley."

"But if you act as yourself, she might see through that. You are her father after all, Harry. She knows you better than she knows anyone else. One word, one slip up, could cost us everything in getting her back. Sometimes we must do what is right for those we love, as opposed to what is right for us."

"I could do it!" A teal haired young man popped his head over the wall of the cubicle next to Harry's. "She is my god sister after all, but we've never met."

"I don't know, Teddy. You're still…"

"I'll be finished training next month. C'mon Kingsley, I want to get out from behind this desk and do some good. And I won't even need a disguise. I can look like whomever you want me to look like."

"That…. Actually might not be such a bad idea… if we can locate Lily and whomever she's with, Teddy could mimic the appearance of the person she's with. We could separate them, and Teddy could grab her and pretend he's who she was with all along." Ron suggested keenly. He liked Teddy a lot and thought he had quite a bit of potential at becoming a great Auror. This mission would be dangerous, but not nearly as dangerous as it could be if they weren't a step ahead of the Bandits.

"Yeah! I could! See Kingsley?" Teddy beamed brightly, loving this particular plan.

"Well, we'll have a while to fine tune it, but I think it sounds quite promising. Good job men." Kingsley nodded his approval. "Harry, I know you missed your daughter's birthday, but I do hope, that you won't have to miss this Christmas."

"I hope so too, Kingsley. I hope so too."

* * *

Hey guys! I really hope you liked this chapter! I wanted to give you more insight into what's going on with Lily than there was previously. Anyway, I always enjoy hearing from you, so if you want and have the time, I always appreciate your input! Reviews help!

Love always,

S.Q.O.


	3. Christmas Eve

WARNING: This chapter is a little dark.

**Little Lily: The Second Year**

**_Chapter Three: Christmas Eve_**

"Are they really gonna try and rescue Lily, Mummy?" Luna asked excitedly, her blue eyes sparkling beneath snowflake covered lashes. They had just driven home from picking the kids up off of the Hogwarts Express in a snowy storm, one of the biggest the country had seen in years. Hermione grabbed a kitchen towel and began rubbing Luna's brown locks dry.

"Well, love, they're going to try. But don't get your hopes up, sometimes these things don't happen the way you want them too."

"Oh, but Mum, it'd be the best Christmas gift ever." Luna frowned, wriggling away from her mother and tugging off her jacket and mittens. Looking her over, Hermione frowned and then reached a hand out.

"Why, Luna Nymphadora Weasley, I think you've sprouted up yet another inch!" She brought her daughter closer and Luna beamed up at her. She was growing quite quickly, and at this rate, she might follow in her father's footsteps for being tall and gangly. Sure enough, when Hermione got Luna to stand with her back against the door jamb to the kitchen, she was a good inch taller than she'd been when Hermione had taken Luna's height measurement in August of that same year. She marked it quickly on the doorjamb. "At this rate, you'll have caught up with your brother before he knows what's hit him."

"Caught up with him in what?" Ron asked as he carried a bundle of what appeared to be cloth in the door. He set it down and peeled back a layer to reveal a very disgruntled Nevvy.

"Daddy, I can't move and I hassa potty!"

"Don't worry love, I'll have you freed in a moment… Really Hermione, did you have to put so much on her that she can't even put her arms down?"

"She had a cough this morning and I didn't want to risk it!" Hermione stated defensively. She pointed to the wall jamb where all of their children's heights and ages were listed. "Luna's going through her twelve year growth spurt. She's gone up an inch since we last saw her."

"But she's still little enough for me to do this!" Ron grabbed Luna by the back of her coat and one of her pant legs, hoisting her up into the air and twirling in a circle. Luna laughed as she was twirled. Ron tossed her, letting go of her completely and her body turned in midair. He quickly threw out both of his arms and caught her, holding her behind the shoulders and under the knees as he had done so many times before. Luna gave a sigh and nestled her face into the side of his neck, breathing in that old familiar scent that meant she was completely and absolutely safe.

"Oh Ronald! I wish you wouldn't." Hermione shook her head, her face pale. She hated when he did that… even though he'd been doing it since Luna was barely crawling. Well… not so roughly when she was smaller, but still. It terrified her that he could drop one of her precious babies at any moment.

"You worry too much. Besides, what's a five foot fall compared to falling off a broom? My little Beater." Ron grinned at her and cuddled his Luna closer, proud she'd made the Quidditch team first string at such a young age. It was getting late and everyone needed to be in bed. Ron especially, needed to get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow was December twenty-fourth, and he would be in the airport in disguise, watching for Lily and helping to make sure everything went smoothly and according to plan.

"U-oh…" The little voice from the doorway caught all of their attention, and they looked in time to see the front of Nevvy's snowsuit spread with wetness. "I told chu I hadda potty!"

"Oh, I'm sorry dearest." Hermione hurried to help Nevvy out of her suit, kissing her head. "That's alright, you needed a bath anyway. Come along then." Hermione scooped up her youngest and carried her up the stairs to the bathroom. As she left, the front door opened and Harry came tramping inside, stomping snow off of his boots.

"It's a real mess out there." He dropped the armful of wood he'd been sent outside to get. "I don't see why we even need wood for the fire when Mum can make a perfect magic one without it."

"Because a bare fireplace with no wood in it and just fire isn't nearly as pretty. Besides, that's the good kind that your Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur sent us. It's drift wood and it'll make blue and green flames."

"You can make any color flame too, Dad." Harry complained.

"That's true. But it'll still look better with wood in it. Now I want both of you up and into bed in an hour, you understand?"

"But Dad… we just barely got here…"

"And you'll still be here in the morning. Now scoot and get your pajamas on. First one down gets extra whipped cream on their cocoa." Ron playfully smacked Luna on the bottom and she and Harry hurried up the stairs, tracking snow on their boots as they went, having forgotten to take them off. Ron shook his head, pulling out his wand and following after them with it, shooting the dirt and snow off of the stairs behind them before he turned and went into the kitchen to make that cocoa.

…..

Harry groaned, leaning back in his cubicle chair. It was well past midnight and he was bushed, but he wasn't about to stop. He needed to finalize the plans for Lily's rescue… and he wouldn't be able to sleep a wink until he knew she was home, safe and sound, where she belonged. Kingsley had said they would have to take her to St. Mungo's before she went home, but so long as she was within his eyesight, Harry didn't care where they were. He just wanted his baby back. He wanted to pull her into his lap and hug her tightly and rock her to sleep as he had done so very many times before. He wanted to hear her giggle and to chase her about the house during a tickle fight. He wanted to properly teach her how to fly on a broomstick and tuck her into bed. He wanted to brush her hair and braid it back for her… he just wanted his daughter back. He had never cared more about someone than he did that little girl, and by Merlin be it, he was going to get her back if it was the very last thing he did.

Tugging his desk drawer open, Harry extracted the picture album he kept there. This one was covered in flowers and pink lettering on the front, along with what appeared to be a few jammy and tiny finger prints from someone who wasn't being too careful or didn't know how to be. Harry flipped it open and smiled. Lily had been an impossibly pink little baby, an impossible amount of black hair on her head and those amazing strange eyes of hers. It had taken Harry a bit of time to get used to a person with two different colored eyes, but he had. And then when she'd been one, with so much hair getting in the way and him with no idea how to contain it… He'd broken down and bought some hair ties and baby clips. The lady at the shop had had to show him how to brush Lily's hair up onto the top of her head and fasten it in a tiny ponytail that stuck straight up from the middle of her head. She'd looked so impossibly adorable that way. She'd toddle along on the floor, that ponytail bouncing all over the place. And then, when it had gotten longer, he'd split it into pigtails. When she started school, he'd chanced the embarrassment of asking one of the mother's of one of Lily's little friends how she braided her own daughter's hair. The woman had taken pity on him and set up a hair-doing playdate. There he'd learned how to restrain Lily's hair even better, and his daughter had been absolutely thrilled that she could have pretty braided pigtails like her friends.

Sighing, Harry continued to flip through the album until he reached the end, a picture of him and Lily in her bedroom at the Burrow. He'd taken her in his lap on her bad and was brushing her hair out, not the least bit of blush on his cheeks. He had been proud to do it. Lily had always had such pretty hair, long and black, all the way down her back to her knees. He'd never allowed it to be cut except for a simple trim here and there to keep it neat, and of course her cute little fringe. That's why the braids came in handy, keeping it out of the way when it needed to be.

"Harry, what are you doing here so early? You look awful, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were an inferi!" Kingsley yawned as he peeked into Harry's cubicle. He was always here this early, being the Head of the Department. "Have you been here all night?"

"Er…" Harry quickly closed the album and placed it back in his drawer. "I was just going over some last minute things for the plan and I must have lost track of time."

"There are no last minute things for the plan, Harry… we've been planning for two months. All we need now is to put it into action. Are you sure you're up for surveillance today? I think you might be better off going home and sleeping. I'll call Hestia in, she said she'd be willing to help if we nee-"

"No. No, I'm fine to do this, Kingsley. I… I need to do this. I just need some coffee or something." Harry forced a smile but it faltered and faded almost immediately.

"There should be some Anti-Sleep in the store cupboard." Kingsley sighed, pointing over to the cabinet sitting in the corner of the office. Harry strode over to it and tugged open the door. This was there the Auror Office kept all of it's remedies, Veritaserum, and Polyjuice Potions along with parchment, ink, quills, and various other things including, but not limited to Decoy Detonators. Harry tugged out the bottle he was looking for, popped the cork and gave it a chug. In an instant, all tiredness was swept away from his body and he smiled. That was much better. He'd be able to help with surveillance at the airport now, even if he wasn't allowed to actually get near Lily until after she was safely in custody and had been looked over by a Healer.

"Better get yourself cleaned up and ready to go, we'll be leaving as soon as Teddy, Ron, Dennis, and Ernie get here. And do something about that breath of yours. You smell like you've been eating a dead carcass that's been left out in the sun for about a week."

….

"Sparrow." Two opened the door to the dank little room Lily was kept in. In the past months that she had been living in there, her skin had become paler, her body thinner, more weak than the previously strong little girl she'd been. Her cheeks were noticeably more sunken than they had been and her short hair was once again matted with dirt and grime.

As Two entered the room, Lily rose with a sigh, not saying a word. The light that used to shine in her odd double colored eyes was gone, leaving a muted sort of look, like she was hollow inside, her soul trodden down to the point where she'd given up on life but was not allowed to die.

Lily followed two out of the room and into the bright lighted basement living room, and the, into the bathroom. He closed the door behind her and she turned on the water in the tub. She had been allowed a bath once a month for good behavior, though the promise of ever getting a bed had been thrown under the bus due to her outburst when told that she had to perform the Killing Curse on an elderly elf who could no longer do her job properly. It had taken two weeks of breaking her down and torturing her with the Cruciatus Curse, but eventually, the Number Men had gotten Lily to do as they wanted.

When her bath was done, Lily climbed out of the tub and dried herself off before pulling on the clothes Two had left her beside the towels. A plaid green dress this time in excellent condition, as though it were new. The fabric felt nice on her irritated skin, soothing the areas the dirt she'd been rolling around in had rubbed slightly raw. She pulled the small glass ball from the pocket of the skirt she'd been wearing and into the pocket of the dress. That large marble with the Snitch inside was the only thing that made Lily feel remotely better. When she was alone she would roll it between the palms of her hands, feeling the smooth surface of it soothing her worries if only for a little while.

"C'mon girl." Two returned, pushing the door open and Lily sighed, following after him. She sat down in one of the chairs in the living room, in front of a plate of food that Two indicated. "Eat.

Lily stared down at the plate curiously. It was much fuller than usual… normally she was allowed porridge for breakfast, but this place had meat on it. Glorious meat! And fruit… grapes! And were those rolls with butter?

Lily licked her lips and dug into the food, not even bothering with picking up the fork. She grabbed up a sausage and tore her teeth into it, chewing rapidly and savoring the flavor a bit before eating quicker, afraid it would all be taken away from her without notice.

Lily ate until the plate was clean, even lifting it to lick off any remaining juice from the sausage and melted butter. It was all so delicious, food… real food! Not just bread or porridge or oranges, but real delicious meat and buttered bread and grapes. Her stomach churned uncomfortably as it stretched to accommodate the extra amount of sustenance it was no longer used to.

Plate empty, Lily set it down and grabbed up the tin cup beside it and began chugging at the milk, only it was thicker and sweeter than milk… cream! They had given her cream! It was so delicious, Lily felt her heart might explode, but perhaps that was just her stomach.

Cup drained of every last drop possible, Lily wiped her mouth on the back of her hand and flopped backwards in the chair, closing her eyes and feeling full and content. What a good meal that had been compared to the usual. And even more strange than the lovely food, was the fact that Two allowed her to rest after eating, not saying a word for a full half hour while Lily's stomach worked on digesting the almost foreign objects.

"Good huh?" Two said finally with a grin on his face. Lily nodded, sitting up and eyeing his cautiously now. A good meal… what did they want her to do? Surely nothing good could be coming if they'd fed her so richly.

"All set?" Three called from the stairway and Two nodded.

"Yep. We're all set, bring them down."

Lily gulped, watching as Three led Jiggy's entire family down to the basement living room. Jiggy, his wife Perry, and their three young children, all looking pale and frightened of what was going to happen to them. Lily began shaking her head as soon as she saw the elves, knowing this was bad… her heart ached… what were they going to make her do to the little elf family?

"Sparrow, today we shall be leaving this place. We will not be coming back, but we cannot have any… loose end, remaining behind us." Two explained with a chuckle. "Therefore, these wretched elves must be killed, so that not a one of them speaks of what they have seen here."

"NO!" Lily shouted, rising to her feet. "NO! I won't do it! NO NO NO!" She shook her head, eyes watering as she looked at the little family of elves, cowering in fear. "Please… no… let them go! Let them go! They won't tell, they won't!"

"You'll do as you are told or we will do it in a much more painful way." Three laughed, pulling a long sharp knife out of his coat pocket and holding it up. He had a manic look in his eyes as he brought it to his mouth and gave it a lick, as though he would very much relish the idea of using it instead of forcing Lily to do the killing.

"I…" Lily's eyes were pouring now as she continued shaking her head. "Please… please… they don't have to die."

"But I'm afraid they do." Two reached out and grabbed for the smallest of the elves who retreated behind his mother. "It'll be much quicker and painless if you do it, Sparrow. Otherwise you'll have to watch while we cut them to ribbons, little by little."

"We'll do the littlest first. Won't that be fun?" Three grabbed the little elf and raised his knife.

"NO!" Lily shouted at once, her eyes wide with complete anguish and fear. "I… I'll do it."

If it would save the elves from dying painfully and tortured… she would do what she could to prevent that.

Lily took her wand as it was offered to her and she raised it, looking at the house elves. "I'm sorry.. I'm sorry… I'm sorry!

A flash of green light…. Another…. Another… Another… and one more. The elves lay limp and lifeless on the floor, their eyes glazed over, their faces still with looks of fear on them.

Lily fell to her knees, dropping her wand and burying her head in her hands as she broke down, her whole being at a loss. Her heart was torn to shreds. Her body numb and her mind screaming out with guilt at what she had just done.

"Alright. Now, we've got to get going. Here, drink this." Two pulled Lily to her feet and held out a goblet of shimmering green liquid. She made a face and shook her head. She wouldn't do anything they asked or told her to do now. There was no one else's life at stake except for hers.

"Alright then." Two raised his own wand. "Imperio."

Lily's mind went blank.

…...

Harry was poised beside the down escalator, looking down into the crowd of people going through the security line that they had to go through in order to be allowed to get to their flight's gate. Dennis and Ernie were posed as guards at the end of this line, watching everyone go through the metal detectors that had also been rigged with Secrecy Sensors. Anyone using any form of magical concealment, whether it be Polyjuice Potion or Invisibility cloak, the sensor would catch it and give a series of beeps that differed from the ones that went off when it was just the metal detector. Ron was already on the other side, disguised and hanging out by a coffee stand, ready to help grab anyone who tried to run, though the airport security had given them a promise to help if that happened. Kingsley was opposite him, dressed as yet another security guard. However, there was always the chance that the Bandits would use magic to fight back, but Kingsley had been sure to make the airport and everywhere within a two mile radius Unapparateable. It would be impossible for the Bandits unless they ran really fast and got out their wands. And Harry was sure that there were more Aurors standing by than there would be Bandits.

"Man approaching front of line with small red haired girl." Harry spoke discretely into wire airport security had given all of them.

"Roger that." Ernie responded and Harry watched closely as the man ushered the little girl through the metal detector first. It didn't go off and Harry let out a sigh. There were plenty more people to go.

"Redheaded boy and a woman coming your way, Dennis."

"Got it. But I thought we were looking for a girl…" Dennis smiled brightly, tipping his hat to the woman as she strode through the metal detector and then turned around. She gestured for her little boy to follow after her and he did, the detector letting out a beeping noise. Harry leaned forward against the banister, eyes widening… But Dennis just shook his head and scanned the boy with a Probity Probe disguised as a handheld metal detector before having the boy empty his pockets. All that fuss over a soda can tab.

"There!" Harry blinked, looking down at yet another little red haired girl, only, upon sighting her, the hairs on the back of his neck stood straight up. She was walking along quietly, much better behaved than any of the other children around her, as though she were older than she appeared. "Green dress, blue hair ribbon. That has to be her. She's coming towards you, Ernie."

The little girl stepped through the metal detector and it went beeping, but not the same beeping as it had done for the little boy with the soda tab in his pocket. This was a different beeping. Harry watched as Ernie reached a hand out, gesturing for the child to step towards him. He did so and he scanned her with the Probity Probe. A series of beepings were set off and Ernie looked down. Now was the time he needed to play his part and play it well.

"Have you got any metal on your person, there love? Any metal plates in your skull or pins in your bones?" He asked kindly. The girl shook her head and tugged her pockets out of her dress to show that they were empty. The man she was with came through the metal detector and it pinged the same way it had for the little girl.

"What's going on here, why are you questioning my daughter?" The man asked angrily, reaching a hand out and placing it on the girl's shoulder.

"She's set off the detector sir, and yet she hasn't any metal on her person, which is quite strange."

"Why that's absurd. The machinery must be faulty. Come along then my little sparrow."

"Sir, I'm afraid you've set off the detector as well, so if you could please step aside, I'll have to ask you to empty your pockets and spread your arms so I can…"

"And if I refuse?"

"Well then sir," Ernie shrugged. "We'll have to take you into custody. We can't have anything dangerous going onto the airplane, now can we?"

"This is a bunch of hooey! Where is your manager, I would like to speak to your…"

"I'm right here. What seems to be the problem?" Kingsley strode forward. He had taken some Polyjuice Potion earlier, giving him the appearance of a short man with a lot of brown hair on his head.

"He's trying to accuse myself and my daughter of trying to take dangerous things onto the plane. We have absolutely nothing on us that's dangerous. She's just a little girl, and we're just trying to go to Australia to be with my wife on Christmas. She's stuck there on business."

"Well, I'm afraid if you beep you have to be checked, that's the airline policy, sir. It's to keep all of our passengers, and our staff, safe."

"Well, it's completely ridiculous. I know I've done nothing wrong. I am a high paying first class customer, and I expect to be treated as such. Now, if you'll excuse us." The man made to walk away, but Kingsley waved a hand. Before the man knew what was happening, Ernie and Kingsley had a firm hold on the man and Dennis was right behind them. He offered his hand to the little girl.

"Come along then, sweetheart. Your daddy's search won't take very long and then you can go see your mummy." The little girl followed after them and through a door marked that it was for airport staff only.

The man struggled as he was led down the hallway, but his arms were pinned and he had no way of reaching for his wand. They brought him into a little room off of the hallway and left Dennis and the little girl outside, sitting on a bench to wait for him.

The Imperius Curse upon Lily broke, Two having lost his concentration on it as he was brought into the room. She blinked her eyes and looked around. Where was she? Who was this man sitting beside her? Where were the Number Men?

Knowing it would be dangerous to speak or move from the bench when she didn't know where she was, Lily remained quiet. She sat, biting her lip and glancing this way and that fearfully. All she could remember was Two telling her to drink this strange looking potion and then… nothing else. Had he forced the potion down her throat and knocked her out? Or had he used the Imperius Curse on her? This seemed to be the most logical answer considering whenever Lily had used the Imperius Curse on one of the elves they had never remembered it afterwards.

Inside the room, Kingsley quickly removed the man's sleeve. "Thought you'd be able to dupe us, didn't you? What is your name? And what do you want with Lily Carpenter?"

"How… I haven't the slightest idea what you're on about!" The man struggled again, but Ernie quickly put a Leg-Locker curse upon him followed by an Arm-Locker.

"We know you know exactly what we're talking about. If you give us the right, truthful answers, and the names of everyone involved, I'll give you less time in Azkaban for kidnapping. Now what exactly were you doing with Lily Carpenter?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" The man shouted and Kingsley waved his hand.

"Teddy, the Veritaserum please." Teddy stepped forward, having been waiting in the room for them. He handed Kingsley the vile of clear colored potion, grinning widely with excitement. This was his first mission after all. "Now, you can either drink this, or we'll gladly inject it, either way it's going into your body. You just choose the fashion."

The man pursed his lips and Kingsley nodded his head. He stuck a needle into the potion bottle and sucked it up into the syringe. "This might sting a bit." He shoved the needle into the man's arm with a smile and then they waited a moment. "Now then… Tell me, is that little girl you were with really Lily Carpenter?"

"Yes." The man nodded, unable to help telling the truth now.

"And you helped kidnap her from outside the gate of Hogwarts School?"

"Yes! Yes!" The man whimpered like a wimp, nodding his head, his eyes tearing now. "We were only doing what we'd been told to do. We had to get the girl, we had to. She has double the power of a normal witch, she could be handy…"

"Handy in what?"

"In the plot."

"What plot is that?"

"The plot to take over and make all of the Muggles slaves. We're honing the girl's powers and teaching her the Dark Arts so she can help us take over. She is the key point in this… the one of the prophecy!"

"What prophecy is this?" Kingsley asked curiously.

"I know not how it goes, only that it is." The man shook his head and spoke no more.

"Well… at least we know that that really is Lily." Teddy grinned brightly. "So I guess it's my turn now, huh?"

"Yep. You can copy his features?"

"No sweat." Teddy screwed ups his face, allowing himself to change to resemble the man. He grinned once he'd finished, the spitting image of the man in the chair. "Right, well… she'll be safe with me." He left the room and strode down the hallway until he met Dennis and the little red haired girl sitting on the bench.

Lily gulped as she saw Two coming down the hallway towards her and the man on the bench. She felt a little bit of relief in knowing that she was not completely out of sorts, but it was bittersweet. Knowing she was with someone made her both grateful and petrified because Two was not a nice person.

"We can go now, it was just a misunderstanding. Like I said, the machine is faulty." Teddy held his hand out to the child and she took it. Dennis nodded and Teddy nodded back, giving him a wink Lily didn't see.

As soon as they were out of the hallway and back into the public area of the airport, Harry was ready. He switched the radio portion of his walkie talkie so that it broadcast throughout the airport. "Attention, due to weather, flight two-twenty to Australia has been postponed until ten pm when the storm is expected to have cleared. Again, flight two-twenty is postponed until ten pm. "

"Oh, looks like we won't be able to go until later." Teddy stated simply with a sigh. "Rotten luck, but that's Muggle transport for you. Well, no point in hanging around here for them to let us go. Let's grab some lunch and head home for now." Lily looked confused for a moment but then nodded. Get lunch? Her captures hadn't ever taken her out except for today… maybe Two was feeling generous now.

Harry turned off his walkie talkie and then headed down the escalator. He tore the Muggle contraption from himself and handed it off at the door, following quickly after his daughter and Teddy, but not so quickly that it would look like he was following them. He knew where they were going… straight to St. Mungo's… straight to a place where Lily would be treated for anything that might have happened to her in her time away from him… but for now… he knew with absolute certainty, that she was finally safe. She was with Teddy, he had a firm grip on her… and Harry was watching for any signs of danger. And here was Ron, catching up and walking beside Harry. No, nobody was going to take his little girl away now that they had her.

Lily was getting even more confused now… where were they going? She walked a little faster, looking up at the Two and then quickly down at her feet.

"Ah, here we are then." Two had stopped in front of a glass plate window with a manikin inside of it dressed in quite an old and very ugly green dress. Lily blinked and her eyes flashed slightly… she had been here before… but when? And how? Images rushed through her mind of a red haired woman in a wheelchair and she blinked, unsure. The woman in her brain was ugly and mean looking… and… had she run over Lily's toes with her chair and then laughed at her? Lily was almost certain she had… and there was another little girl… one with brown hair, blue eyes… and a mean smile… and a boy with chestnut hair and a pointed chin who had kept pushing her off the curb and trying to get her hit by a car. And they had called her a name she wasn't sure of… something flower related… but the Number Men referred to her as 'Sparrow', which she wasn't sure was right either. Who were these people of her memories? And why were they so mean to her? All she knew was that Two had saved her from them… or at least, that's what she had been told. But whenever she tried to remember anything from before she'd met the Number Men, everything was fuzzy or impossibly scary and she didn't like that.

Lily shook her head. She didn't want to be in this place that was associated with scary memories… she didn't… it made her skin crawl.

"This is the best place for lunch in town! C'mon then." Two tugged her along and then spoke to the manikin. "Hi, we're here." Was all he said and the manikin motioned with it's finger for them to come forward. Two led Lily in through the plate glass window and into what looked like a bright, white, shining waiting room with a reception desk. Lily had been here before too. She felt it in her bones… lots of horrid people with red hair had sat in these seats… She started to wriggle, she wanted to get away from this place. She couldn't be here… it was so strange…

"Hello there! We've been expecting you." The woman behind the desk stated kindly and she clapped her hands. Two Healers came hurrying down the hallway with a floating stretcher.

"Sorry to do this to you, little sister. But you'll thank me later… I hope." Teddy grimaced and hoisted her up onto the stretcher where she was instantly tied down to it. She squirmed and began to scream, not words, just sound, words escaped her at the moment. What was going on? Why was she in this place? Who were these people in green and where were they taking her?

Before Lily could think another thought, she felt a prick in her arm. She turned her head and before she could see what the prick was, everything went black.

* * *

Good god those elves... Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I particularly loved writing in Lily's bit since it wasn't in the original. Please let me know what you thought if you've got the time, it always makes me smile to hear from you!

Love always,  
S.Q.O.


	4. Fear

**Little Lily: The Second Year**

**_Chapter Four: Fear_**

Lily let out a moan and pressed her face tightly against the deep pillow. It was soft and felt like a cloud under her head. She snuggled down under the covers of the bed more so, the weight of them comforting and soothing even though they were just a dream. Because there was no bed here, was there? Lily was sure she was dreaming, but at least it was a nice dream this time compared to all the nightmares she typically had. Dreaming of such a simple thing like a bed was a bit strange, but she hadn't slept in one for… well… she couldn't remember the last time she'd slept in a real bed.

"Lily?" A soft voice crooned and Lily's brow furrowed. The word sounded familiar… very familiar. It was a flower, she knew that, but it also had a more significant meaning somehow. More so than that was the voice… it was female. She hadn't heard a woman's voice for about the same amount of time she hadn't slept in a bed. That had to be part of her dream as well.

A gentle hand pressed against Lily's cheek and she squirmed, not sure what was going on. She was just dreaming… right? Just to be sure, she opened her eyes and was suddenly assaulted by bright light.

"Oh good, you're awake!" A woman with blonde hair came into view as Lily's eyes adjusted to the light of the room. The woman smiled at her kindly, her silver blue eyes sparkling as she did so. She had a kind voice and even kinder face, and Lily felt as though she could look at her forever.

"Wh-where…?" Lily glanced around again, but the bed she was in was surrounded by curtains and she couldn't see the rest of the room, though she could hear people moving about. There was the sound of a man's giddy laughter and the scribbling of a quill.

"This is St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. I'm Healer Lovegood, but you can just call me Luna. Do you know your name?" Luna asked gently, picking up a clipboard from the end of Lily's bed.

Her name? Lily blinked and nodded. That was an easy one. "Sparrow."

"Ah… I see." Luna heaved a sad sounding sigh. "How about your age?"

How old was she, Lily wondered to herself. She knew she was eleven, but then… how long had it been since she'd turned eleven? When was her birthday again? She couldn't quite pinpoint it, everything in her brain from before she'd been with the Number Men was scattered and fuzzy to the point where even something so simple as her birthday was hard to remember. "Er… Eleven… or twelve… Where's Two?"

"Two?"

"That man…"

"Oh! I'll explain that in a few minutes after we finish with our questions, alright?" Luna asked kindly, sitting down in a chair beside Lily's bed. Lily nodded. She wasn't sure if she wanted to see Two or if she wanted to never see him again. He and Three had been looking after her for a long time, but they weren't very nice men at all as it was. So perhaps she was better off without them? But then again, something panged inside her, a fear of being in unfamiliar surroundings with unfamiliar people.

"Do you know what the date is?"

"Christmas Eve?" Lily asked, tilting her head curiously. She wasn't good at keeping up with time since she couldn't pinpoint how long she had been with the Number Men, but she did remember Two saying something about it being Christmas Eve.

"Well, technically it's Christmas now, but only because you've been asleep. But that's good. Alright, I think that's all of the questions I needed to ask for now."

"So where's Two?" Lily asked again, sitting up higher in the bed and keeping the covers over her. The room was chilly without them.

"That man… Two? He's been sent to Azkaban for kidnapping you last April. You've been away for about nine months. Your name isn't Sparrow, it's Lily Willow Carpenter. You were eleven when you were taken, but you turned twelve at the end of August. Do you remember being kidnapped?"

"No." Lily shook her head. So her name wasn't Sparrow? It was Lily… that flower. That was why it had seemed so familiar. "But… I just know I wasn't where I was supposed to be."

"And do you know where you were supposed to be?"

"No. I used to, but not anymore." Lily sighed, straining her mind again. It hurt to do so and then she whimpered as flashes of scary images filled her memories. "There were scary bad people there. They had lots of red hair… and… and… there was a man with black hair. He hurt me… he hurt me really badly." She whimpered again, hugging herself and reaching for her pockets only to find she had been changed into a hospital robe instead of the dress she had been wearing. "My ball? Where's my ball?! Where is it!? Where is it!?"

Lily could feel panic rising up in her and she thrashed about in the bed, throwing back the covers and kicking the sheets, looking for the small glass ball that had been her only connection to the past… the only thing that made her feel safer. She climbed out of the bed and looked under it and then began tugging at the sheets, trying to get them off, her breathing getting more and more rapid as she did so.

"Shh! It's alright! It's right here… here it is!" Luna dug into a drawer beside Lily's bed which had little things in it. She pulled out the Snapper, offering it to Lily who snatched it from her and sat down on the bed. She brought her heels up, knees to her chest and began rocking back and forth. She rolled the Snapper between her palms, humming to herself and still breathing faster than normal.

When Lily seemed to have calmed down a good bit, Luna spoke again. "You need to rest some more, Lily. We'll talk more later, but for now are you hungry?"

Lily nodded, her stomach grumbling at the idea of food. She'd been allowed just enough to keep her alive for the most part over the course of the past nine months. She was thinner than she had been, raggedly chopped hair only slightly longer than it had been when Three had chopped it. If she hadn't been wearing the hospital gown her ribs would be visible.

"Well, let me fix up the bed and then I'll go get you some breakfast." Luna smiled and Lily climbed off the bed as she pulled out her wand. With one wave, all the bed clothes righted themselves and Luna pulled back the covers. Lily climbed in, keeping a tight hold on her Snapper. Luna pulled the covers up over her and gently stroked Lily's hair back from her forehead. "I'll be right back."

Lily rested her head and shoulders back against the soft pillows, feeling calmer than she had been. Luna was a nice woman so far, at least, she seemed to care about her enough to feed her and not talk too much about the Number Men for now.

Luna returned shortly carrying a tray. She set it down on the small table over the foot of Lily's bed and then unlocked the table from where it was attached to the bed. She rolled it up to where Lily could reach it with ease and then smiled, sitting down on the foot of the bed. "Your grandmother made the pie."

Lily looked down at the tray and was glad to see it wasn't porridge. Instead, she had been given real scrambled eggs and bacon along with a glass of orange juice and a small slice of golden colored pie the seemed vaguely familiar. Mouth watering, she began grabbing up egg without even bothering with the fork. The fork would just slow her down.

"Woah woah woah, Lily. You don't need to eat so fast, you'll make yourself sick. The food isn't going to grow legs and run off, don't worry. And if you're still hungry after, you can always have more." Luna said, reaching out and staying Lily's hand with a gentle touch upon her wrist. She picked up the fork and offered it to her. Lily took it hesitantly and began using it, lifting the eggs to her mouth and relishing the deliciousness of them. The Number Men had never given her eggs.

While Lily ate, Luna left her to go check up on some of her other patients. Lily ate both the eggs and bacon and then half her juice (which was like heaven) and then turned her focus to the pie. Luna had said her grandmother had made it… which meant she must have family. At least, she had a grandmother and one who had taken the time to make pie for her… That was something.

Lily picked up a bit of the pie with her fork and brought it to her mouth. Once the pie hit her tongue, Lily's fork was going back for more. She chewed, relishing the delicious sweetness of it and unable to help devouring it down like it was the most wonderful thing on the planet. She cleaned the plate completely and then finished her juice before pushing the table back down to the foot of the bed.

Feeling full and sleepy now, Lily yawned and laid down, cuddling back up beneath the covers. She tied a string from her gown around her Snapper in a way that it wouldn't come loose and then held it in her hand, knowing it would be safe even if she let go of it while she slept. She buried her head down against the pillow and closed her eyes, feeling more at ease than she had done in months.

…...

Lily lay quite still in the overly white and sterile looking hospital bed. She looked very tiny in it and worn out, but she was breathing perfectly and she was here… she was right here. Harry sat in a chair by her side, having refused to move until they knew exactly how badly her memories had been tampered with. Luna had already spoken to her a bit and had said that there were some things to be worried about as far as Lily's memories of people went. But as long as she was sleeping it was alright for Harry to be there with her… and they would have to see what happened when she woke up as well, to see exactly how someone from her past affected her.

Harry reached out a hand and ran it through Lily's pretty hair… or rather, what was left of it. Someone had chopped those lovely black locks into an awkward looking rough cut so that her hair fell only to the tip of her earlobe on one side, and the top of her other ear, completely lopsided. If he ever found out which one of those men had done it, he'd chop their hair and then kill them. Lily couldn't even have the braids she loved so much any more.

"Ah, Mr. Potter… your wife is here to see her."

"I haven't got a…" Harry stared at him confused for a moment before the voice that reached his ears explained everything.

"How is she? Is she hurt? Oh, I'll murder those bloody bastards!" Ginny came into the room, her legs in an awkward pair of braces, but working. They were to help strengthen her muscles after having not used them in so long since her Quidditch accident. Once the braces came off, she'd be as good as new, having undergone some serious magic and Muggle medical procedures.

"She's fine… A little bruised here and there, a bit thinner than she should be but otherwise, she's got a clean bill of health. Physically. We're not sure about mentally yet, but Luna said she seemed pretty frightened earlier when she asked if she remembered anything from before being kidnapped." Harry sighed, giving Ginny a very small relieved smile. She gave it back and slipped down into the chair beside him. She leaned forward and stroked what remained of Lily's fringe away from her forehead.

"Poor baby… look what they've done to her beautiful hair! But she's here… she's…. she's safe." Ginny blinked and the strong resolve that she was usually so very good at keeping up with broke as she let out a sob and covered her mouth with her hand. She closed her eyes tightly, willing herself to restrain. Harry shook his head at her and quickly wrapped his arm around her. She turned and buried her face against his shoulder, unable to hold it in. "I'm just so…"

"I know. You're happy she's here but pissed and sad as well." Harry nodded, able to understand perfectly. "It's fine. She should be waking up soon and then we can see the extent of the damage to her… look… there we go." He pointed and Ginny lifted her head.

Lily stretched as she always had… first her left leg, then the right, and then her arms lifted up over her head and held together to help arch her back up off of the bed before she dropped and, yawning, rubbed at her eyes. They opened and glanced around, taking in her surroundings. And then, her eyes alighted upon him and Ginny. He smiled at her. "Hey, Snidget."

Lily's eyes grew wide and her breathing increased rapidly all of a sudden. She had been sleeping peacefully, full and dreamless, her orange juice having been spiked with potion. And now she'd woken up and Luna was not here but some strange people were. A man… the man from her nightmares! The one with the black hair who had tortured her, who had used the Cruciatus spell on her. And a red haired woman… the woman who had run over her feet in a wheelchair.

"Snidget? Lily?" Harry's smile faltered and he rose from his chair. And then he caught it… the wave of fear that was spreading down her face, her mouth opening… "Oh no... no Snidget. You're safe sweetheart. It's Daddy, you're alright. Don't be scared, honey, oh please don't be frightened, you're…"

But Harry's voice was drowned out by the scream of horror his daughter emitted. She scrambled, trying to free herself from the bed sheets while scooting away from them at the same time… as though they were going to hurt her. Harry reached his hand out to her, but she screamed louder and finally freed herself of the bed. She fell off of it rapidly and then promptly crawled under the one next to it that was empty. She stood up and dashed out the door, still screaming her head off.

A Healer ran past the door and Harry sighed, dropping his head into his hands, tears leaking through his fingers. It was much worse than he could have ever imagined. He knew she'd be fearful… the letter had said she would… but he had still hoped that… maybe… she wouldn't be as scared as she was. But then, she wasn't a Gryffindor was she? She was a Ravenclaw… she didn't know how to be as brave as the rest of the family did.

Lily ran as fast as her still sleepy and weakened legs could carry her. Her feet were bare, smacking against the tiled floor of the hospital loudly as she retreated from the hospital room she'd been in. She went down a hallway, passing by people who gave her confused looks, and then down a stairwell, racing as fast as she could away from that floor where the man and woman were. That man… who had called himself 'Daddy'. Was he really her father? His voice had been gentle and concerned, but her memories of him… they told another story.

Lily ran until the stairs ended and she found herself in another hallway. She raced down it, past more people and out into the waiting room. She looked around, her eyes moving rapidly for someplace to hide… and then she spotted it. The desk where people checked in, a long line forming at it. Lily skirted around the line and through the swinging door in the wall that separated the area behind the desk from the waiting room.

The woman behind the desk let out a yelp as Lily crawled under the desk, pulling her knees to her chest and grabbing her Snapper which was still attached to her hospital gown by one of the strings. She began rolling it between her fingers, humming and rocking, pressing herself beneath the desk as far as she could go.

"Honey, you can't be back here…" The lady behind the desk stated and reached for Lily. As she did so, Lily let out a scream of fright, still to rattled to trust anyone. A bubble burst out of her, encompassing her and making her untouchable, forming itself to fit beneath the desk as well… Somehow the bubble seemed familiar, but at the same time it didn't… she knew it was another thing she should remember, and yet… couldn't.

Luna sighed, peeking her head into Lily's room to find Harry and Ginny looking quite out of sorts. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you guys to leave until she's asleep again. I've just gotten word that she's hidden herself under the waiting room desk. I'm sorry."

"That's alright… we knew it might be bad." Harry ran his sleeve over his face, drying it. He was glad it was Luna who had come to kick them out instead of anyone else… crying was less embarrassing that way. "Just… fix her."

"I will fix her. There's not been a case of mixed memory that I haven't yet been able to mend." Luna beamed at him and moved away from the door as a pair of Healers entered the room, their arms carrying a kicking Lily in her bubble. She had curled up on the bottom of it, arms over her head, screaming and crying as her legs kicked out. It had been quite the task removing her from beneath the desk, but after severing the desk from the wall and levitating it they'd been able to get a hold of her.

Harry and Ginny got up and moved away from the bed. Harry sighed and watched as his daughter was gently placed down on it and magical bindings wrapped around her bubble to keep her from running again. She kept screaming and kicking, still curled up. Her eyes alighted on Harry and she screamed louder, but he just forced himself to give her a small smile.

"I love you, Snidget. I'll be back to see you again soon." He and Ginny left the room, Harry sighed, looking back at his little daughter laying bound in the hospital bed. It broke his heart, but this was the best place for her for now. In time, she'd get better, he hoped, and be able to come home.

….

"Aha! What is this here, I wonder?" Ron asked as Luna looked up from present opening the next morning. She and the rest of the Weasley family were at the Burrow again this year. Ron held out his hand and Lily reached one of her own up to take the letter he was holding from him. She blinked, looking down at nothing more than the words 'Mission Successful.'

"You saved her!" Luna exclaimed excitedly. She rose from where she was sitting, jumping up and down. "Xavier! Xavier! Dad saved her!" Xavier looked up from the latest little Muggle toy he was opening, his eyes wide.

"She's safe?" He asked, looking up at Ron, waiting for an answer. When the red haired man nodded, Xavier smiled and jumped up. Luna grabbed his hands and they bounced in a childish circle, chanting.

"She's safe! She's safe! She's safe!"

"Yes, she's in the hospital for now though."

"Oh isn't it wonderful! I sent Luna Lovegood a pie for her just in case…" Mrs. Weasley beamed and bent down to scoop up a pile of presents still sitting unwrapped beneath the tree. "We'll have to bring her these of course, she shouldn't be without her presents on Christmas… and the ones we've saved from her birthday as well… oh, won't it be lovely! Oh that precious child, I can't wait to…"

"Mum… calm down." Ron raised a hand to silence her, his expression sad. "We can't go visit her just yet. She's got to get better first. Harry and Ginny are down there now… in case you hadn't noticed their absence… and Harry sent me an owl really early this morning saying that as soon as she saw them she went ballistic. I've been getting hourly reports from Harry, and he says that the Healers keep telling him that she won't speak again. She just shakes her head or nods, though she did speak to Luna earlier before she saw Harry and Ginny. She's gonna have to be taken care of first, before we can see her."

"Oh, not even just a little visit?" Luna's happy smile sank and she slipped down onto the floor sadly.

"Well…. Maybe a little one later on when she's sleeping." Ron caved at Luna's big blue eyes looking up at him pleadingly. She perked up brightly. "But just you, Xavier, and Mum. Got it?"

"Got it!" Luna bounced forward and grabbed hold of the last present she had yet to unwrap, a big smile on her face at the idea of finally knowing her best mate was safe and she would be getting to see her later.

…

"Harry… mate…" Ron gave Harry's shoulder a shake to wake him. He'd walked into the waiting room at St. Mungo's to find Harry slumped sideways in his chair, sleep having finally claimed the better of him. He started, hand reaching for his wand before his eyes alighted upon Ron. "It's past dinner time. Luna Flooed to tell us that Lily's taking a nap now, so we can pop in to see her for a few minutes if we want."

"Oh… good…" Harry yawned and rose from his seat. He grinned at the two Ravenclaws who were peering anxiously down the hallway already. "Happy Christmas."

"Oh dear, you look like you could use some more sleep. Why don't you head home and take a nap? Lily will still be here when you wake up." Mrs. Weasley suggested, looking just as antsy as the two little Ravenclaws did. Harry shook his head.

"I'll be fine, Mrs. Weasley. I'll take a rest later."

"I've got her birthday and Christmas presents." Hermione stated, holding up her old beaded bag. "We thought it'd be a good way to let her know that somebody loves her by leaving them here for her to open when she wakes, since we can't actually be around her yet."

"Oh good! You're here." Luna beamed as she appeared from down the hallway. "She's out like a light, you can see her now. But try to be quiet and not wake her, we don't want her screaming like she did earlier." Everyone nodded and followed Luna down the hallway to the room Lily was currently occupying.

"Lily!" Luna exclaimed in a whisper of pure excitement. She bounded for the bed and sat down in Harry's usual chair for when the little girl was asleep. Her bubble had popped at lunch time when big Luna had managed to calm her down enough for her to eat. "Look, Xavier! It's Lily! It's really her."

"But someone's cut the poor dear's hair." Mrs. Weasley frowned, reaching out to give the short black locks a stroke before sitting down beside Luna.

"She looks quite peaceful though." Hermione smiled and drew up a chair on the other side of the bed while Ron stood behind her and Harry moved to sit on the end of the bed. Xavier stood at the end, looking down at his friend.

"That's what you say when someone's dead." He stated with a frown and then slipped down to sit on the floor, his back leaned against the bed.

"Oh, I just meant she's sleeping nicely as opposed to looking like she's having nightmares." Hermione shook her head. Xavier had been a little touchy the past couple of days, more so than usual at least. Mrs. Weasley said he'd been keeping to his bedroom at the Burrow as he had done towards the end of the summer as well. She'd just chalked it up to a boy being a typical boy. Percy used to stick to his bedroom too.

Xavier had shot up in height just as Luna had, and he was no longer as pale as he used to be, having spent a lot of time outside in the Burrow's garden at the beginning of the summer. He had a couple of freckles on his face to show for it. His hair was also messier, no longer slicked with any gel of any sort, but rather, left mussed and slightly longer than the average neat boy's haircut would be. He seemed to like it this way, and Mrs. Weasley only hoped he wouldn't become like Bill and want to grow it longer.

"She looks skinny… and pale." Mrs. Weasley pondered concernedly. "Did she finish her lunch?"

"Oh yes… and breakfast. And she's had two slices of that pie you sent." Luna nodded and checked the chart at the end of Lily's bed. "She had a dosage of Sleeping Draft right after, and she'll be out for another half hour or so before we've got to check on her progress as far as her memories go. We've been giving her a potion that should straighten them out properly. It's nothing we haven't seen before… or what St. Mungo's hasn't seen before… People used to mix memories back in the days of You-Know-Who."

"Mixed memories?" Little Luna asked curiously.

"That's what we call it when someone's memory has been tampered with. It's a potion that does it… and you have to give it to them once a week. Lily should be more herself once it's completely out of her system, but the antidote helps it along and also helps her differentiate reality from the fantasy she's been forced to endure. In this case, we're pretty sure it has to do with nightmarish memories about her friends and family, judging by the way she screamed when she saw Harry and Ginny earlier."

"So, it's curable?" Ron asked.

"Oh yes! Very curable!" Luna beamed, full of confidence. "You'll have her back soon, but she'll still have to take her potion once a day until her symptoms are completely gone. I'll be back to check on her once she wakes up. You lot had best be gone in the next fifteen minutes or so, just in case that potion wears off early."

"Good to see you, Luna." Ron grinned at her and she smiled back.

"It was lovely seeing you all as well. It's not often I get to unless it's to pull something out of little Nevvy's nostrils."

Ron's ears turned red and he said no more as she left. Harry coughed something that sounded particularly like 'nostrils' and then tried to look somber when Hermione glared at him.

"Well, I suppose we'd best get going then. We wouldn't want to scare the poor dear… And I expect Harry would like a few moments alone with her." Mrs. Weasley sighed and bent over to give Lily a quick kiss on the forehead. Ron and Hermione followed suit before they left the room, leaving. Luna grasped Lily's hand tightly.

"Dun worry, Lils, we'll be back soon, but for now, I hope you like your present I gotcha. Quaffle misses you too, he'll be right pleased to see you when you get better." She gave a slight whimper and then ran out of the room, leaving just Harry and Xavier there, the boy still sitting on the floor.

"Did you want to say anything to her, Xavier?" Harry asked, peering over the edge of the bed to look down at him.

"I… er… I would… I mean… I will, but I um…" Xavier's cheeks tinged pink and Harry smiled.

"I'll leave you to do it privately, then." Harry nodded and gave his daughter a kiss. "See you soon, love you, Snidget." He understood what it was like to be a kid and not be able to say what you wanted to to a friend with another person in the room. He left, leaving Xavier there. Once Harry was gone, Xavier rose from his place on the floor and moved to sit in the chair beside Lily's bed. He frowned, looking down at his sleeping friend and sighed.

"Hi… Look, I know you're sleeping and stuff so you can't really hear me, but I just wanna say that I miss you, ok? I mean, Luna's fine and all, but I can't talk to her about the same types of things we used to talk about… like my dad and mum and brothers… I haven't seen my mum or my dad in over a year now, but I'm getting used to that. The Weasleys are really nice. Mrs. Weasley gave me my own room and everything, it used to be Bill's room when he was a kid, and it's my favorite color, green. And she lets me use any of the old brooms in the broom shed, because nobody else does. They're not the best, but it's neat anyway. Me'n'Luna usually have a game of catch up in the orchard using apples. It'd be funner if you could come too though. Anyway…" He frowned and reached over to the pile of presents on the table beside the bed and picked up a haphazardly wrapped one to set it down on the bed gently. "This one's from me… I hope you like it. I picked it out special on account of you're my best friend and all… See ya."

As Xavier rose to leave, Lily stirred. He stopped dead in his tracks, unable to move as she opened her eyes. She blinked, catching sight of him. It took her a few moments before comprehension dawned on her face. He looked different than what she remembered, but this was still the boy from her nightmare… the one who kept pushing her into traffic and pegging things at her. She screamed.

Xavier covered his ears, squinching his eyes shut against the noise. Not able to take it any longer, he opened his mouth too, and let out an ear splitting scream that only a thirteen year old boy would be capable of. The noise of it stopped Lily's scream in it's tracks and she stared at him in shock. Xavier glared at her. "What're you yelling for? I haven't done anything to you."

Lily just stared at him unblinkingly and then, she opened her mouth slightly, her voice coming out in barely a whisper. The boy was scary, but he hadn't touched her or thrown anything at her yet… he'd just screamed right back at her. "Aren't… aren't you gonna hurt me?"

"Hurt you? Why the hell would I hurt you?" Xavier asked curiously, flopping back down in the chair he'd been in.

"Isn't that what you've always done?" Lily asked, still staring at him. She had no way of hiding behind her hair, it was too short to do that now. Xavier shook his head.

"No. I mean, we got off on the wrong foot when we met, but we've been real good friends ever since. We play Gobstones together and study, and bury Luna in things."

"Luna? The Healer?"

"No, the other Luna… your cousin and our best mate. Don't you remember? No… of course you don't, the Healer said you wouldn't. Well, don't worry, you will. You'll remember all of us."

"All I remember is that you're all mean… whoever you are."

"I'm Xavier. And by us, I mean me, and Luna, and your dad, and Ginny, and all the rest of the Weasleys."

Lily shook her head. "No… I don't think so… Those are the bad people… I think…"

"Look, if we were the bad people, we wouldn't have brought you all your birthday and Christmas presents. Just look at this pile!" Xavier pointed to the overflowing table. "Jeez, Lily, I knew you'd be out of it, but I didn't think you'd be this out of it. I gotta go, the Healer'll be in soon to check on you. I hope you feel better." With that said, Xavier left the room, leaving a wondering Lily behind him.

She was confused beyond belief. Her memories told her one thing, but they were all jumbled and strange. That boy had said something completely different… was it true? Had the Number Men been lying to her all along? Or had the boy been lying? She turned her head to look at all the gifts she'd been given and sighed, not knowing what to think.

"Ah, wonderful, you're awake!" Luna came into the room carrying a tumbler. She smiled glad to see the little girl awake and not screaming now. It had been quite daunting when she'd flipped out earlier.

"Yes…" Lily nodded. She was awake, and despite still being a bit nervous and scared, she was feeling better than she had earlier when she'd run screaming from the room.

"Ah! She speaks! Wonderful. I've got your potion right here… you're to drink it all. It'll make you feel loads better. How are you feeling?"

"My brain hurts." Lily admitted. She wasn't scared of the Healer… she was nice and she didn't have any bad memories associated with her.

"Yeah, it'll do that for a while. But don't worry, we're going to get you fixed up in no time. And then you can go home to your family. They were here while you were asleep, see?" Luna pointed to the presents. "You were gone from home for so long, but they didn't forget about you. These are for both your birthday and Christmas."

"My family…" Lily's brow furrowed. Was her family good? They had left her presents… just like the boy, Xavier, had said. And Luna said they were nice as well… and Luna was a nice person, at least, so far from what Lily had seen of her she was.

"Yes… right now you might have some mixed feelings about them. But that's alright too, it's all part of why your brain hurts. Now, I want you to drink your potion, and you can open these if you want to, but then I'll be back to give you a couple of tests, alright?"

"Alright." Lily nodded and lifted the beaker to her lips. She chugged down the disgusting tasting potion and then handed the beaker back to Luna who left with it. Lily sighed, leaning back against her pillows. She turned her attention to a small package beside her on the bed. Well, it couldn't hurt, could it?

Ripping the paper open, Lily found a tiny white box. She tugged the lid off of it to reveal a necklace with a Golden Snitch pendant hanging from it. Intrigued, she held it in her palm and her eyes widened as the wings began changing color until they were a nice pretty pink. Unsure of what this meant, Lily frowned, but undid the clasp anyway. She put it on and then looked down at it curiously. Whomever had given it to her… well… could there be anything bad about someone who knew what her favorite Quidditch ball was? Pondering over this, Lily began unwrapping her other gifts as well, revealing things that only people who knew her, could know that she liked even if she didn't exactly remember for herself until she saw them. Sugar quills in a whole assortment of flavors, a plushie puffskein that reminded her of something, though she wasn't sure what, a hand knitted green sweater with a blue L on the front, and a whole bunch of hair ribbons that the package said glowed in the dark. Hair ribbons… when she had hardly any hair to do up… unless it was to pull it back with one of the ribbons as a hair band… that would work for now.

Wishing she still understood better than she did, Lily kept at it until the Luna returned to give her her tests, mainly simple ones that involved physical activity rather than mental for now. Luna didn't want to push her too quickly. These things took time and patience.

* * *

So I really really like the way this particular chapter came out once I revised it, it's a lot better than the original was and I hope you like it as well. I'd like to thank all of you who have favorited or followed this story or especially reviewed on it. I always like to hear your opinions, suggestions, and requests of something you'd like to see snuck into it. It seriously makes my day. The next chapter should be up in a few days.

Love always,

S.Q.O.


	5. Healing

**Little Lily: The Second Year**

**_Chapter Five: Healing_**

"Shh Lily, shhh…" Luna closed her eyes against the strain of stress and pain that this whole thing was bringing her. It had been five days since Lily had been placed in St Mungo's and her treatments had been going well up until today. Today was the day they had to perform one of those tests that Luna knew would help her, but also broke her heart a thousand times over to have to watch.

Lily, sitting up, but bound to the bed so she couldn't run off, was screaming again, bloody murder, with tears running down her cheeks as she struggled with all she had to get away. She was absolutely petrified, everything in her telling her to run. The bindings also helped channel any accidental magic, meaning they prevented her from bursting her bubble out to protect herself, which made this all the more terrifying. Harry simply stood beside the bed, trying to talk to her in a soothing voice, as he had always done when she was upset. He looked at Luna and she nodded. They had discussed this, knew it would be difficult… but it had to be done.

Harry sat on the edge of the bed and wrapped his arms around Lily, hugging her tightly even as her screaming increased in volume and her expression got even more fearful. She struggled, but the bonds and his arms held her. Feeling the tears beginning to leak down his face, Harry buried it in her hair, breathing in that old familiar little girl scent that was so genuinely Lily he let out a sob.

"Shhh baby girl, shhh…. It's just Daddy… Daddy loves you sooooo much, Snidget… I just want you to get better so you can come home. Come home to Daddy, and Gramma, and Luna, and Xavier, and Ron, and Hermione, and Ginny. We all just want you to get better so you can come home. Don't you remember me, Lily?" Harry lifted his head and brushed her bangs back from her eyes. She was so scared now that she'd stopped screaming and just sat there, staring at him, eyes paralyzed with fear, mouth wide open. He kissed her forehead and she closed her eyes. "You're my baby. You've always been my little Snidget and I would never, ever, ever, in a million kajillion billion trillion years do anything to hurt you."

Something flickered in Lily's eyes and she blinked, fear mixing with confusion. She turned her head to Luna, but her eyes were still glued to Harry, brown and green meeting green, still so very full of fright it broke his heart. "Is this real or is this not real?"

"This is real, sweetheart. Remember, I showed you all those photographs of you and your Daddy?"

Lily nodded. She remembered the photographs… they were in an album beside her bed along with the presents that weren't sitting at the foot of her bed, most of them books or toys. The photos had confused her greatly. This man, looked perfectly nice and lovely in the photos and he especially looked nice in the pictures he had taken with her. But then her memories told her different. Told her that this man had tortured her, starved her, beaten her, and kept her locked away in a dark basement room…. Had used a spell on her that made her body erupt in pain.

"Isn't this familiar, Lily?" Harry asked as he ran a hand through her hair, ruffling it and then kissing her nose, her cheeks, and finally her forehead. "I used to tuck you into bed every single night and do this. We'd sit and I'd brush out your hair and braid it back so it wouldn't tangle so much, and tuck you in and read you your story. That was when your hair was long and nobody had chopped it short. I used to take you to the salon and they would trim your hair, but we always wanted to keep it long and growing so that you could put it up in so many pretty ways. And afterwards we'd go and we'd get ice cream. You loooove ice cream, you'd always want a big cone full of peppermint stick and birthday cake ice cream."

"You…. You didn't starve me?" Lily asked suddenly, her eyes even more confused now. Some things did feel familiar. His touch… and his smell. And he was gentle, not harsh or scary as her brain made her imagine. Because it was her brain doing all the scary things because someone had messed with her memories, at least that was what Luna had told her. The memories she had were images of things that had happened, but they'd been twisted around to make them seem scary. The Number Men, as Lily referred to them as, had done that to her.

"Nooo! I would never have starved you. You always got breakfast, lunch, snack time, dinner, AND dessert. When you were four you went through a phase where you wouldn't eat anything but elbow macaroni with chopped tomatoes, cream cheese, and gummy bears mixed in. And it had to have gummy bears, otherwise you'd say it was 'disgusting'." Harry laughed at the memory, remembering the face Lily had pulled whenever he'd left out the gummy bears… a totally affronted expression of horror.

"Ewwww…" Lily made a face. "With gummy bears?"

"Yup. The lady at the food shop always glared at me like I never tried to feed you anything else. We were always buying bags of gummy bears and lollipops. Disgusting macaroni for dinner, lollies for dessert. Two lollies. One for after dinner, one for bath time so that you'd let me actually wash your hair."

Lily smiled a little, reaching for the photo album. She opened it to a page, a photo of a tiny black haired girl in a tub, lollipop in one hand, duck in the other. The stories he was telling her meshed with the photos… and photos didn't lie really. They were real ones. Harry laughed again and took the album from her. He turned the pages until he found the one of Lily eating her weird macaroni dish. "And here you are with that… oh! And there's another really good one… right….. here!"

Lily laughed. Little her had to be about six or seven and had her face painted. She was holding a balloon and looking absolutely thrilled that her Daddy had gotten his face painted too, a flower on one side, her name on the other with a heart beneath his eye. Lily's made her look like a pixie dust fairy, all sparkly.

"That was at the end of your first year in primary school. We and the rest of your class went to an amusement park as a sort of awesome field trip."

"I remember…" Lily blinked, pressing at her mind, fighting through the terrible memories that had been instilled in her and then something clicked nicely in her brain. "I ate too much and then we went on the roller coaster and that made me puke. So to make me feel better you got your face painted and you looked so silly I couldn't stop laughing. And then I got my face painted, and we went on tons more rides, and then you got me a balloon. Real or not real?" She asked curiously.

"Real!" Harry beamed, hugging her tightly and kissing her head again. "Oh, Lily, you're going to get better, I just know you are. See, everything is starting to make a little bit more sense, isn't it?"

"Yeah." Lily nodded, her expression still wary of him, but at least she was screaming as she had been when Luna had first brought him into the room. She pressed at her memories more, searching for ones that felt happy, ones that didn't have a blurred edging. Luna had told her to sort her memories, which had been coming back with the help of the bad potion leaving her body and the good potion going in, into two separate piles. The ones with blurry edges were fake and the ones without were truth, though sometimes she still had trouble figuring them out and had to ask for clarification. A pang in Lily's chest and the image of a woman flitted through her mind and she frowned. "My mum is dead, isn't she?"

Harry sighed. "'fraid so, Snidget. But it's always been that way since the day you were born. Oh, but how she wanted you. She loved you the first minute she knew you were inside her. That's why your middle name is Willow. Without her, I don't know what I would have done, because then I wouldn't have you, and you are the single most precious thing in the world to me. Do you understand that? You're my baby."

Lily stared up this man, with his eyes that matched her left one and his jet black, though slightly speckled with silver, hair. She looked down at the picture again and then up at him, with his kind smile and hopeful expression. She was still a bit frightened, but it had ebbed with his and Luna's persistence and the photos… the photos that were the truth of her past, not the blurry memories of horror. She nodded, pressing her head up into his hand as he ruffled her hair again. "Real."

"Real." Harry and Luna nodded confirmation of Lily's statement, and the twelve year old finally smiled.

…..

"I take it your visit with Lily went well then?" Hermione asked as Harry sat down at the kitchen table, a big smile on his face. He was completely at ease, ready to eat whatever Mrs. Weasley had cooked up for them.

"It's going to take a while for her to trust me completely again, but we're making progress. Luna's been playing this game with her to help her discern reality from fantasy and it's really working. They've been using the photo album I brought her to help her determine which memories were tampered with and which are true facts."

"Oh! Luna has an album she's been making since summer before last. She's got plenty of photos of Lily and the rest of the Weasleys in it, would that help as well?"

"I bet it would. Can I borrow it, Luna?"

"'ure." Luna beamed brightly, taking her concentration away from the mashed potatoes she was shoveling into her mouth.

"Chew then chat." The entire table chorused. Ron and Hermione were there with Luna, and Nevvy, and then there was Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, and Xavier. Harry was spending the night over with Uncle George and Auntie Angelina. The older kids would be returning to Hogwarts January second. Harry had already owled McGonagall about getting what Lily would need to learn so that she could catch up to her peers by the time the next school year rolled around. She had most of her first year basics, having just missed the very end of the year and she'd only missed half of her second year so far, so it would be simple to get her caught up, even if he had to teach her himself. Hermione would help him and so would the others. Once Lily got well and came home, it'd be a constant state of learning and teaching.

"Also, could you guys save your second year notes?"

"We always save our notes, Mr. Potter." Xavier stared at him like he had asked one of the most absurd questions yet. "We're not Gryffindors who think they'll never need them again." Luna nodded in agreement. "I expect Lily's going to need them when she gets out of the hospital? She can borrow mine. Luna's notes are lacking. She only writes down what gets put on the board."

"Xavier does both the lecture and the board." Luna rolled her eyes.

"At least I can keep up and get O's on my homework instead of A's and E's."

Luna coughed something that sounded strangely like 'overachiever' and then looked back down at her meal as though she hadn't. Xavier stuck his tongue out at her and she stuck hers right on back at him. She grinned and then looked up from her food. "Can we go visit Lily before we go back to school?"

"Sure. I'll let Luna know to prepare her for you. She'll be scared at first, most likely, but you've just got to show her that you love her and stuff, and she'll come around a bit. She won't be completely better for a while though."

"She screamed at me the other day…. But then we had a chat. She's really weird now." Xavier nodded in understanding. He had told Luna about his chat with Lily, but hadn't mentioned it to any of the adults. "She didn't understand who I was really."

"Exactly." Harry nodded, knowing what he meant. "She'll come around though, don't you worry. Luna and the other Healers are working with her all the time to try and get her memory back to where it should be. The potion is helping, and she's beginning to be able to tell the difference between the fake memories and the real ones. She remembered a trip we took once to a theme park when I showed her a photo."

"That's wonderful!" Mrs. Weasley beamed as she cleared away the plates that everyone was finished with. "Who wants dessert? I've made some nice treacle pie."

"Some for me for sure." Harry beamed, knowing that she'd made it to cheer him up in case the visit with Lily hadn't gone well.

"Me too!" Nevvy bounced in his chair and Mrs. Weasley laughed.

"Well, let's everyone have some. And we'll save a slice for Lily to bring when we visit her."

"Oh, she'll love that. She'd always hoard the treacle tarts in her bag after dinner at school, because they don't have them every night." Luna laughed.

"If she's better in time, we'll send her back to school for the last term, that way she can finish her first year, and then she can do her second year over the summer, if she studies hard enough."

"She's very good at studying." Xavier nodded before shoving a forkful of pie into his mouth and letting out a sigh of happiness. Mrs. Weasley's treacle pie was the best. He chewed and then swallowed. "She's really good at Charms and Defense and Potions."

Harry laughed. "Sounds like my mum. She was known for being good at those things as well, except she was a Gryffindor."

"So, she's like… a little Lily… Only less brave." Ron pondered.

"Only more smart." Hermione corrected him.

"Well, she's little and she's Lily, so I guess so." Harry laughed and dug into his pie. "Mrs. Weasley, this is the best pie ever."

"Oh, thank you dear. I thought you might like it." Mrs. Weasley beamed and dropped a second piece onto his plate before he'd even finished the first one. Harry was skinnier than she'd like to see, probably from all that running and then all that worry when she knew for certain he wasn't eating much because Ron and Hermione had told her. But Harry was feeling at ease. His daughter was safe and she was healing. He had been able to hold her today, to talk to her, and to remember something fun they'd done together. It was rejuvenating. He thought he might even be able to sleep tonight. St. Mungo's would send him owls periodically through the night if Lily wasn't asleep. And if something went badly, they'd Floo Ron and Hermione's house.

Finishing his second piece of pie, Harry stretched his arms up and yawned. He rose from his chair and placed his plate in the sink before turning around and extracting Nevvy from her seat. He spun her, holding her on his hip, one arm about her waist, the other clutching one of her little hands. She let out a squeal of pure delight, rocking back and forth.

"Uncy daaance! Uncy dance!" Hermione laughed, happy to see Harry finally coming alive when he'd seemed dead for so long… and not just because she'd thought him dead before a year ago. Nevvy leaned back, her auburn hair flying out behind her, straight and calm unlike her mother's was, her blue-flecked brown eyes sparkling.

"Uncy thinks it's time someone was in their tubby."

"Tubby!" Nevvy clapped her sticky hands, her face covered in pie goop. She just adored her bath time… all the toys and bubbles… not so much the hair washing, but the idea of her ducky and boat kept that at bay.

"We really should be going." Ron agreed, rising from his chair. "Thanks for dinner, Mum. It was excellent."

"Kisses for the best Gramma ever." Harry spun Nevvy around again until they were by Mrs. Weasley. He leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek while Nevvy kissed her other one. Mrs. Weasley blushed.

"Come along Luna." Hermione brushed her daughter's hair back from her face.

Harry popped into the fireplace with Nevvy, leaving Ron, Hermione, and Luna to follow after them shortly after. Once they were there, Ron reached to take Nevvy from Harry, but he withheld her. "How about you guys go see a film or something? I'll watch the kids."

"Oh, Harry, we couldn't." Hermione shook her head. "We need to…"

"Hermione… we haven't been out in… ages. Not since before Harry." Ron frowned at her. "Harry can watch em, they'll be perfectly fine…"

"Oh… but we've never…"

"Hermione."

"Ron."

"Herrrrrmioooneeee…." Ron gave her a look and she sighed.

"Oh, alright! Harry, Luna should be in bed by no later than ten, eleven at the latest if she's doing homework. And she likes to…"

"Have a mug of warm milk mixed with a bit of vanilla to help her sleep."

"Yes, and Nevvy…"

"Needs a bath."

"And she's been…"

"Favoring her pink footed pajamas with the hippos on them because they're warmer than the other ones." Harry smiled and placed a hand on Hermione's back. "Go on I can…"

"And if she…"

"Starts back up with her cough, I'll to give her a sippy cup of half apple juice, half Pepper-Up potion."

"You've really been paying attention." Hermione hugged him and kissed Nevvy on the cheek before turning to give Luna a quick hug. "You guys be good for Uncy, alright?"

"I'm always good." Luna stuck her tongue out playfully at her mother and Hermione stuck hers right back out at her teasingly. She bent forward and kissed Luna's tongue before the little girl could pull it back in, making Harry and Ron laugh as Luna's face turned to shock. Mums, you never knew what they'd do next even if you'd known them for more than half your life, which Harry and Ron had. If you'd asked either of them if Hermione would do something like that when they were still in school, they would have called you a nutter.

"You are typically well behaved and have a good heart. But you are sometimes naughty." Hermione corrected her older daughter with a smile. She gave her an extra big hug, having never really left her this late at night.

"Mum… go… Uncy's perfectly capable of looking after us. And I can help with Nevvy if he needs me too, but he probably won't because he's raised Lily just fine."

"This is true." Ron nodded, prying his wife off of their daughter.

"I love you! And I love you!" Hermione called, blowing kisses as Ron pulled her out the front door.

"Love you too, Mum, Dad." Luna called after them and Nevvy giggled.

"Bye bye, Muma! Bye bye Dada!"

"Ooooook…." Harry grinned as the door clicked shut and he set Nevvy down. He moved forward to clasp the locks on the door tightly and peered out the window on the top. "Looks like they're taking the car. Anyway, what d'you guys want to do?"

"Nevvy needs her bath." Luna pointed out, reaching to tug at her little sister's dress. Nevvy put her arms up, letting her dress be taken off. She squealed a little bit when it got caught on her head, and then came off. She laughed, banging on her chest with the pure three year old joy of being half naked. As soon as she was free of her dress, she ran down the hallway in just her undies and socks. Harry laughed, chasing after her and scooping her up. He held her sideways in his arms and then brought her up, blowing a raspberry on her tummy. She let out a squeal of happiness.

"'gain! 'gain Uncy!" Harry repeated the raspberry, making Nevvy giggle and wriggle. Harry swung her round onto his hip.

"Silly, Nevvy. She just loves having her stomach blown on."

"Most little kids do, I think." Harry grinned as they started up the stairs. "Lily was always begging for her tummy to be blown on, it's something about the noise, I think. I'd have blown your tummy too if I'd known you when you were a little one."

"Probably, I used to like it just as much as Nevvy." Luna followed Harry into the bathroom and sat down on the toilet to watch while he started the water for the bath and helped Nevvy off with the rest of her cloths.

"Alright, sweet girl." Harry lifted her up and plopped her down in the tub. She looked down, frowning.

"Bubbles?"

"Bubbles." Harry grabbed the baby bubble bath and squirted some beneath the faucet. Nevvy looked pleased and grabbed for her boat. She pressed it down in the water, making it sink as far as it could and then watching it bounce back up to bob on top of the shallow water.

Luna was silent for a while, watching as Harry scrubbed Nevvy with a ducky towel puppet. She seemed to be pondering something seriously. She bit her lip, her top teeth reminding Harry a bit of Hermione when they'd been younger. Large but endearing at the same time. "I think Xavier likes her. As in liiiiiikes her."

"Hmm? Likes who?" Harry asked as he absentmindedly poured some baby shampoo on Nevvy's head and began scrubbing. It was completely tear free, a special wizarding formula that would knock the socks off the Muggle stuff.

"Lily, of course." Luna giggled as Harry faltered and dropped the shampoo right in the water.

"Uncy, dat does not go dere." Nevvy pointed out, fishing the bottle out of the tub and placing it, dripping with suds, on the side. Harry turned to look at Luna.

"How would you know that?"

"Well, he talks to her about everything, even the stuff he won't tell me. And he gave her his second favorite Snapper, and you don't just give you second favorite Snapper to just anyone. And he got sad around her birthday when she wasn't there, and he was getting sad around Christmas, but then you found Lily and saved her, and he looked happier and he was even happier tonight when you came and told us she's starting to really get better. And he got her a necklace for Christmas, and boys don't usually do stuff like that unless they like ya." Luna stated this all rather simply, as though it should be obvious to anyone with half a brain.

"His Snapper?"

"His second favorite Snapper." Luna nodded slowly with each word as she said this very matter of factly. Harry was briefly reminded of Hermione stating some fact or other straight from a book when they were younger. It gave him chills… Luna did look an astonishingly good bit like Hermione, though her nose was longer and she was quite a bit taller than her mother had been at twelve. That, and her eyes twinkled, blue just like her father's.

"How old is he?"

"Thirteen. His birthday is at the beginning of November."

Harry let out a breath as though he'd been holding it. He didn't like the idea of kids aged twelve and thirteen having those types of feelings, but if he thought about it, he'd been thirteen when he'd first seen Cho Chang and thought she was supermegaawesomecute (he hadn't thought she was supermegafoxyawesomehott until the next year).

"I just wanted to warn you." Luna shrugged and offered Nevvy the turtle that was sitting on the sink. Nevvy laughed and took it, dunking it under the water to fill it up and then squirting at a target on the wall above the faucet.

"Thanks." Harry nodded. He knew it would come eventually, kids growing up and dating, but he just hadn't hoped it would be this soon. Lily was still just his little Snidget after all… and he wasn't quite ready to let go of that, not after the past year they'd had. First he'd had to give her up, then he'd gotten her back and that had been so short before she'd been taken from him. No, he was definitely not ready for his baby to be getting interested in boys… but then, maybe she wasn't and it was just Xavier, being older than her. Turning his attention back to Nevvy, Harry squished her hair up onto the top of her head, the soap helping it stand straight up. "Look, Luna."

"Hehe, Nevvy's a troll doll!" Luna giggled and reached over to give the very tip of Nevvy's hair a curl. She smiled. "Hey, can we really go see Lily tomorrow?"

"Yeah, if it's cool with your folks. We'll bring Xavier as well, it'll really help Lily."

"Yay!" Luna danced about and slipped on a bit of wet floor, falling into Harry's lap before she could right herself. Harry laughed and tickled her with soapy hands. She was a great niece, even if she wasn't his biological one, she was just as good as.

…..

"Alright guys, here's what's going to happen." Harry stated as he, Luna, and Xavier stood outside the window into St. Mungo's. "We're all going to go in together, and Lily is going to be bound to her bed so she doesn't run off. She's most likely going to scream and be really scared, but hopefully she'll calm down after a few minutes. Make sure you let her know that you really love her, ok? And you can show her your pictures."

Luna clutched her photo album closer to her chest and nodded, her face a bit strained. She wanted to help Lily, but she was also worried about how this visit was going to go.

The threesome headed in through the glass and went through the lobby, heading up to the children's ward. The ward was brighter than most of the others, though still sterilely white, it had pictures drawn by some of the kids there and a mural of the outdoors.

"Oh, here you are!" Luna stated peeking out of her office door. "Just let me finish adding some boomslang skin to my cure for Ebola and then we'll go see Lily."

"You're curing Ebola? " Harry asked, blinking as Luna turned around to toss something into the cauldron that was simmering on her desk.

"Oh yes. I think I've got it this time. It'd be better with some Crumple-Horned Snorkack toenails, but I've substituted powered bicorn horn instead. It should work." Luna waved it off and came back out into the hallway, closing her door behind her. "Well, let's go then."

They followed Luna down the hallway to Lily's room where the little girl was propped up in her bed looking at the Harry's picture album. Luna stopped them at the door and held up a hand to tell them to wait before she entered the room. "Lily, you've got visitors."

Lily looked up from the album to smile at Luna and then her eyes moved to the door. She tilted her head to one side, something she always seemed to do when she was contemplating or pondering an idea with curiosity. Her face wasn't as fearful as normal, but it was slightly wary and she moved back in her bed a bit, flattening her back against the currently upright bit of the mattress. She blinked a couple of times, seeming to be struggling with something in her head before she forced a small smile. "Hi Daddy."

"Hey there, Snidget!" Harry beamed, glad she wasn't trying to run and that she hadn't been bound down to the bed. That was a good sign that she was making enough progress for Luna to leave her free. "I've brought your best mates along to see you. They really missed you."

"Hi Lily." Luna bit her lip, peeking in through the door, but big Luna motioned them all forward, so they entered the room. Harry moved to sit in the chair next to Lily's bed and Luna edged closer as though she was approaching a frightened animal. Xavier strode right in, but stopped when he reached the empty bed that sat beside Lily's. He sat on it and Luna rushed to join him, both of them looking at Lily nervously. She wasn't screaming or trying to run away, so that was good.

"I er… I brought you this. To help you remember us." Luna rose and offered her the album at arm's length. Lily took it after a couple of moments and opened it. She blinked. Here was a photo of her and this girl and boy, all looking impossibly bright and happy sitting on a bronze colored couch, Lily in the middle with her arms around both of them, bringing their heads in and nearly smacking them together while they laughed.

"That's the Ravenclaw common room at Hogwarts. We're all Ravenclaws, that means we're the smartest house." Luna stated proudly, sitting down on the bed next to Lily to help translate the photos. Lily tensed up, but did not move away from this girl who was supposed to be one of her very best friends. She had memories of her, but she was still struggling sorting reality from the blurry made-up ones. But Luna didn't frighten her much really, just made her a bit uncomfortable, which was a lot better than being scared. "And that's you two playing your silly Gobstones game. I don't get the point of it, I like chess better."

Lily was blinking, looking down at the photo, her head tilting and she leaned forward, staring at the very center where the game pad was. She suddenly dropped the album into her lap and rolled over. Luna moved out of the way as Lily tugged open the drawer of the table beside her bed. She grappled within it for a few moments before she extracted something small. She slid out of the bed and took the couple of steps it was to cover the space between her and Xavier. She held out her hand and he burst out laughing.

"She's still got her Snapper! I figured it would have been lost."

"You gave me this?" Lily asked, looking around the room for confirmation. The beloved item in her hand had been her one source of comfort in that dark basement room where the Number Men had kept her. She still rolled it between her palms at night between dinner and bed time and then in-between times when she was feeling particularly anxious about the world. She also kept a tight hold on it when she was struggling with sorting her memories. "Real or not real, he gave me this."

"Real!" Luna beamed.

"First time we played, yeah." Xavier's face brightened quite a lot more than it had been. He dug into his own pocket, extracting his own swirling black and green Snapper. "See? This one is mine, and that one is yours. And we each have a set of Gobstones that we play with and…"

"And you've won a hundred and sixty games, whereas I've won a hundred and twenty four." Lily whispered, the information flowing from her brain as though she'd always known it. This boy and this girl… they were friends. Her friends. Her best friends… even if it still felt weird.

"Yeah!" Xavier laughed again. "That's right, that's right!"

"And… and we play chess?" Lily turned around to look at Luna and she nodded. "And I've never beaten you, no one has."

"No one." Luna grinned brightly and flipped through the album a bit. "Look, here we are studying in the library. And then there's you and me playing in the backyard at the Burrow… and there here's all of us with Aunt Ginny at her flat."

"That wheelchair lady…" Lily frowned for a few moments, staring at the woman with red hair.

"Well, she was in a wheelchair. There was…"

"An accident.'

"Yeah. But she's getting loads better. She's got braces on her legs now to help work her muscles."

"You saw her the first day you were here, Lily." Harry spoke up now, having been sitting back to let the kids do their own thing until now. "She was here, but then you woke up and ran away because you were terrified of us still."

"Oh yeah…" Lily nodded and then frowned, looking around. "How come she didn't come too? I'd like to see her… Only, I have some pictures of her too. And some memories… nice ones, but I'm not sure if they're real or not."

"Well, I suppose we could floo her right now and see if she isn't busy. Though, Lily, if they're nice memories, they're probably real." Harry smiled, glad to see his daughter actually indicating that she wanted to see someone instead of the other way around. It showed that she truly was making progress. Luna said the old potion was pretty much completely out of her system now, though it still took a good bit of the good potion to help fix the damage the Number Men had done.

"I could get her." Xavier stated. "Her flat's only a couple of blocks from here."

"How about, you go Floo her? There's fireplaces for making calls in a room just off the waiting area." Harry suggested, not wanting the thirteen year old running around London by himself. He was sure he'd be fine, but he wasn't about to take any chances. Mrs. Weasley would skin him if he let Xavier wander London by himself.

"Alright." Xavier nodded and got up from the bed. "I'll be right back then." He left the room and little Luna began showing Lily more of the photos. Sometimes they would giggle, making Harry smile and remember how he and Ron used to be when they found something amusing.

Lily was feeling more confidant around this new Luna girl, who, after asking, she found out had been named after the Healer Luna who looked after her. That made her feel even better and it was easier to relax a bit as they looked through the pictures. Some of them were silly, like Xavier with a face full of gunk or a small round fluffy creature with a long pink nose that was trying to get up Luna's nose.

"What is that thing?" Lily asked curiously, pointing to the fluff-ball. She'd had dreams about that thing, only it had been bright red with horns, not fluffy and yellow and insanely adorable.

"That's Quaffle, he's your puffskein." Luna provided, flipping the page to a picture of Lily curled on her side in bed, fast asleep with a puffskein cuddled up on top of the side of her face like she was the best bed ever. "He misses you a lot."

"He's mine? He's so cute!" Lily stroked the photo.

"Maybe we can bring him tomorrow to see you. He's been staying with me over vacation, but at school he sometimes sleeps with Xavier."

Five minutes later, Xavier returned, Ginny following, her braces helping her strand proudly. She smiled, entering the room and Lily looked up from the photo album. Lily returned the smile after a moment, looking wary, but also anxious and happy at the same time. She leaned forward in the bed, eying the woman apprehensively, but willingly.

"Hello Lily." Ginny beamed brightly and came over, sitting on the foot of the bed and offering Lily her hand. Lily reached out tentatively, taking it and something inside her clicked and she smiled right on back, wider now, brighter. "Xavier said you wanted me to com visit."

"Yes… I found theses." Lily nodded affirmation and then looked around the room before turning her eyes back to Ginny. She let go of her hand and reached for the photo album her father had brought her a while ago. She opened it to the very last page and undid the string tying the envelope in the back open. Harry had pasted it there to put photos in that he hadn't quite gotten to putting in the album yet. A smattering of photos spilled out and onto the white blanket of the hospital bed.

"Oh wow…" Ginny picked up some of the photos. They were mostly of her and Harry, hanging out by the lake, or in the common room… looking crazy happy and goofy just to be around one another. "I'd forgotten about these…"

"So had I. Hermione gave them to me months ago." Harry admitted, reaching out to pick up one of the pictures and smiling at it.

"You were almost my mum." Lily stated, pointing to a more… kissy lovey dovey picture that was still on the bed. A sixteen year old Harry had his arms wrapped around a fifteen year old Ginny tightly, curled up in a chair in the corner of the Gryffindor common room. Wizarding photos, the two in the photo occasionally pecked one another on the lips and then looked around bashfully as though worried someone one catch them.

"I suppose you're right…" Ginny laughed and ruffled her hair. "But then you wouldn't be quite you. I probably would have been, if this one…" She pointed to Harry. "Hadn't been all gung-ho gotta kill Voldemort so we can't be together anymore because I love you and he'll use you to get to me."

"Hey, it happened before just because you knew me, I wasn't going to risk it a second time and have it be even worse." Harry pointed out quickly, reaching over to look at the pictures himself. Luna had grabbed hold of one and was giggling up a storm to herself. Xavier sat on the other bed, watching curiously. Luna offered him the photo and he glanced at it, letting out a snort and covering his mouth to keep from making too much noise.

"I was a little kid! I was more than perfectly capable of defending myself by the time…"

"Bellatrix almost killed you and she would have if your mother hadn't of stepped in! And that was just for being part of the resistance. What do you think she would have done to you if she'd of found out how much you mean to me? What you are to me?"

"But she didn't! I'm here and I'm alive and…" Ginny blinked, tilting her head. "Mean to you? Are to you? Harry, you're getting your present and past tenses mixed up again." She spun around, swinging her legs off of the bed so she was properly facing him. "I know I meant something to you in the past, but that's the past."

"No, I'm not getting my tenses mixed up." Harry hide his face quickly, ducking to look fixedly at his shoe as though it had suddenly become the most interesting thing ever to be in existence. "Listen, we should probably discuss this some other-"

"So you still have feelings for me, is that it?" Ginny asked, placing her hands on her hips, her own face tingeing pink. Her chin jutted out in a way reminiscent of her older twin brothers when they were serious. As always, it caught Harry off guard and he faltered. His eyes moved around the room quickly, trying to lock on anything besides those flaming brown eyes that always seemed capable of seeing right through him no matter how much he tried to hide things.

"I er…."

"Harry James Potter, you answer me right now! Do you or do you not-"

"Yes! Ok? Yes, but this isn't the time or place to be-" Harry was cut off abruptly by Ginny grabbing the collar of his shirt and tugging him forward so that she could promptly kiss him full on the lips. Harry's eyes blinked in shock for a moment before the closed and his whole expression was replaced by absolute bliss.

Luna let out a high pitched squeal, Xavier's face was beyond shocked as his Gobstone fell from his hand and rolled across the bed he was sitting on, and Lily looked like she was torn between laughing and mouthing like a goldfish. Finally she burst out. "Are you going to be my mum now?"

Harry and Ginny broke apart, both red in the face. Ginny turned around and laughed, tugging Lily to her and giving her a snuggle. Lily tensed up, rigid against Ginny, but it did feel ok to be hugged like this… slightly familiar, but not completely comfortable yet. She wriggled free after a moments and smiled a bit. She really was getting better, slowly but surely, with time. All these people that she had been afraid of, they really weren't scary at all. They were her friends and her family, people who really seemed to genuinely care about her, and she hoped that she'd remember even more and be able to get out of the hospital soon. She liked Healer Luna well enough and she felt safe here, but her heart somehow knew that this wasn't the place for her. This was not her home, there was somewhere else she belonged… with these people who were sitting at her bedside.

"Well, are you?" Lily inquired again after neither adult answered her pressing question. She knew that her real mother was dead. This man was her father though, and he loved her, or at least, she felt he did. Ginny wasn't quite as clear in her head yet, but something in her told her that having her for a mum wouldn't suck.

"Honey, these things take time. We'll just have to wait and see what happens." Harry reached out, ruffling Lily's hair. He trailed his eyes to Ginny. "That is, of course... if you… if you want to…. You know… go out sometime or something."

"Sure." Ginny nodded. Luna let out another pitchy squeal, typical for any giddy twelve year old girl who had just seen her aunt finally kiss her uncle after having heard about how much in love they used to be when they were younger. It had most definitely been quite the interesting of days.

* * *

Wooo! This one took a bit of extra editing as it was pretty long to begin with but also kind of crap. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it and if you have the time, I always love hearing from you. It makes me smile.

Love Always,

S.Q.O.


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